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Alice Walsh

Alice Walsh writes fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. Her published work includes nine books for children and young adults. Many of her books have been nominated for or won awards. A number of them have been listed as Best Books for Children and Teens in Canada. Her YA novel Pomiuk; Prince of the North (Dundurn 2005) won the Ann Connor Brimer award.

Alice graduated from St. Mary’s University with degrees in criminology and English, and from Acadia with a master’s in Children’s Literature. She has worked as a preschool teacher, volunteer probation officer, creative writing instructor, and hospital ward clerk.

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Carol Sinclair

Carol is writing a book entitled, The Darling Cannibals. She’s also an editor with Editors’ Association of Canada. Her forte is dialogue and character dynamic. She has been an actor and playwright in eight provinces for 35 years.

Recent projects are: The Last Bean Supper, about the loss of women volunteers with the closing of our churches, Far Flung, about immigrants setting up in rural Canada, and Vis Viva, about the women in early science. She was invited as Atlantic rep of the Canadian delegation to an international gathering of female playwrights in Mumbai, India, for her hard-hitting drama, Come Unto Me, about a social worker who turns vigilante when a kiddie porn pervert is publically named and then sent home to await trial.

Carol has combined writing and performance for TV as an issue satirist on Rita Deverell’s Skylight Series for Vision TV. Three early years at Second City forged her conviction that humour propels message. Screenplays of her all-female cast comedy Idyll Gossip and the highly romantic comedy, The Summer of the Handley-Page have been funded by Ontario Film Development and Telefilm. The latter script was also produced for national radio by CBC, as was her one-woman tour de force, Brownie from Hell. She has been, for fourteen years, director of Sinc Ink. She is currently fund-raising to produce her adaptation of ScotiaGiller prize-winner Linden MacInyre’s novel, Causeway.

Ship’s Company Theatre premiered her play, Ferry Tales, her play, Share, and her large-cast comedy, The Summer of the Handley-Page. Another huge-cast piece, Firefly, was staged at Dal Theatre as well as the Blyth Festival.

She has been writer in residence at St. FX, and with Dalhousie’s Medical Humanities, where she wrote Défense de Fumer, which toured Nova Scotia, Ottawa, Vancouver, Charlottetown, Saint John, and Arviat, Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit, Nunavut.

A multiple recipient of awards from Canada Council’s Writing and Theatre Sections, and the Provincial Councils of Ontario and NS, and the Municipality of the District of Guysborough, her other professionally produced plays include Young Hate (GG nominated) Brownie From Hell (Crow’s Theatre, Toronto), Firefly (Blyth Festival, Blyth, ON) Idyll Gossip, Presents and Old Boots (Mulgrave Road Theatre, NS), Hansel & Gretel & Handsome & Grateful (Festival Antigonish).

Professional productions have been as far-reaching as Toscana, Italy; Galway, Ireland; Perth, Australia; Cape Town, South Africa; London, England; Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia; and in Cincinnati, US, as well as in every province in Canada and Nunavut. Carol is a member of WIF-T Atlantic, the Editors’ Association of Canada, Canadian Actors’ Equity Association and ACTRA.

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Darcy Rhyno

Darcy Rhyno writes novels, short stories, plays, non-fiction (travel, science, health, people profiles). His latest book is a memoir about life in post-communist Eastern Europe.

He is the author of the pre-teen fantasy novel set in 1950’s Halifax called THE UNDERWORLD MAGICIAN. He’s also the author of the YA novel MONSTERS OF SUBURBIA, which is a realism adventure story with themes of bullying, isolation, estrangement and myth. This novel is suitable for junior high readers. He has also published two collections of short stories, CONDUCTOR OF WAVES and HOLIDAYS. He’s been writing for Saltscapes magazine since 2007. He is an award-winning travel writer and a member of the Travel Media Association of Canada and has published hundreds of articles with Saltscapes, Canadian Geographic Travel, BBC Travel, Atlas Obscura, The Daily Beast, the Chronicle Herald and many, many more. His play Snowbirds, a comedy set at Christmas, has been produced twice in Nova Scotia.

Conductor of Waves is a collection of 12 stories set in a fictional Nova Scotia fishing community. The Globe and Mail called it “a strikingly accomplished collection.” His first novel for children placed second in the Atlantic Writing Competition. As a columnist for Saltscapes magazine, Darcy writes the back page for each issue, prepares feature articles and writes for special publications about travel, food and other topics. He writes for other magazines and newspapers as well. One of the stories in his collection called Holidays was published in The Vagrant Revue of New Fiction, an anthology of work by the most promising writers in Atlantic Canada.

For much of his career, Darcy has worked in education and with children. A teacher and arts worker by profession, he has worked with many schools and teachers across the province, as well as with artists from all genres. For 16 years, he was an instructor in the graduate program of the Faculty of Education at Mount St. Vincent University where he taught courses in popular culture, reading, media and literature. His readings and workshops are always engaging, informative and entertaining. See his website at www.darcyrhyno.com

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Susan McMaster

Almost a decade ago, poet Susan McMaster and her husband Ian found a beautiful summer home in Minasville on the Fundy shore, where they now spend much of each summer, returning to Ottawa each winters. Susan was the president of the League of Canadian Poets (2011-12), and is the author or editor of some 30 poetry books, anthologies, and periodicals, including recordings with First Draft, SugarBeat, and Geode Music & Poetry. Recent collections completed in Nova Scotia include Haunt>, Lizard Love: Artists scan poems by Susan McMaster, Pith & Wry: Canadian Poetry (ed.), Paper Affair: Poems Selected & New, and The Gargoyle’s Left Ear: Writing in Ottawa. Crossing Arcs: Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me, which both began and was finished in Minasville, was shortlisted for the the national Acorn-Plantos award and Lampman Poetry Prize, as well as the Ottawa Book Award.

Susan has presented her poetry across Canada and abroad, and broadcast on such shows as WordBeat, Go!, Richardson’s Roundup, As It Happens, and Morningside. Other projects include founding the national feminist and arts magazine Branching Out; writing “Dangerous Graces: Women’s Poetry on Stage” for the Great Canadian Theatre Company, “Dark Galaxies” for the National Arts Centre Atelier, and “Poetry in the Park,” for the summer festival in Ottawa. She organized “Convergence: Poems for Peace”, a millennial project to bring poetry and art from across Canada to all Parliamentarians in 2001. Convergence included a selection by Nova Scotian Carole Glasser Langille.

McMaster enjoys collaboration, and her poetry has inspired works by many artists and composers. She is grateful for a warm welcome into the Nova Scotia literary world through readings arranged by Marc Petersen at the Acoustic Maritime Music Festival (with bassist Alrick Huebener), Heather Pyrcz at Acadia University, Jeannette Lynes at St Francis-Xavier, David Rimmington at the Seahorse Tavern, Susan Sweet and Gwen Frankton at Galley 215, Doris Hagmann at the Avon Emporium, Kelly Bingham at Bing’s Eatery, the jams at the Minasville Community Centre and elsewhere, and Scott Rines and Kennetcook School. In 2006, Susan read her poem, written 25 years earlier, “Today, I turned everything around” and drank a glass of champagne with neighbours and friends and the crew who had just lifted her house up with two cranes, moved it 80 feet, and turned it around so 12 of 17 windows now open to views of the sea.

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Adele Megann

Adele Megann is a Newfoundlander based in Halifax. Her short fiction has been published in Canadian and US periodicals and anthologies. She has won several awards–including the Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award–and has given many readings and interviews. She has been told that her accent is charming. She thinks everyone else’s accents are charming.

Adele lived several years in Calgary, where she was part of the Pack of Liars writing workshop, and she was a fiction editor of Dandelion magazine. Over the years, Adele has been involved in the writing community by organizing readings, and teaching and judging creative writing.

After returning eastwards by moving to Nova Scotia in 1999, Adele became acquainted with her new home by participating in Writers in the Schools throughout the province. She performed at Playwrights in Performance Cabarets. She coordinated school matinees and wrote curriculum guides for Exodus Theatre Society.

In addition to her literary publications, she has also contributed several articles to an Irish magazine called Set Dancing News.

Adele’s day jobs usually involve teaching. She has taught diverse subjects–including music, drama and literacy–to children and adults, including those with disabilities. She sings, and plays several instruments, usually in the context of traditional Irish music. She lives with an assortment of humans and animals.

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Josh MacDonald (he/him)

JOSH MacDONALD (he/him) is the writer of a theatrical adaptation for Robert Cormier’s classic novel I Am The Cheese. This adaptation is the winner of a Playwrights Guild of Canada Tom Hendy Prize, as well as a Theatre Nova Scotia Merritt Award for Outstanding Adaptation. Josh is also the writer of the stage plays Halo, Whereverville and The Mystery Play, which have been produced here at home and around North America, are published by Talonbooks, and are curriculum titles in high schools and universities. Josh is the winner of an AMD/Dell “Next Wave” Award for Best Screenplay from Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX, for his horror movie The Corridor (IFC Films). He is also the writer of the feature comedy Faith, Fraud & Minimum Wage (eOne Films). Josh writes for series television, is an actor for stage and screen, and has taught playwriting and screenwriting courses for Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design (NSCAD).

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Penny Ferguson

Born in 1957 in Storeytown, New Brunswick, Penny Ferguson attended Nova Scotia Teachers College (A.Ed.) and Acadia University (B.Ed., & B.A.). While studying at Acadia, Penny edited Alpha Arts Magazine for three years. She taught full and part-time in public and private schools in Nova Scotia, served as the Writer-in-residence at the N.S.T.C., and visited numerous schools and colleges to give writing workshops. She also participated in many public readings and offered workshops in Canada and in England.

Her poetry, short stories and art work have appeared in publications in Canada, the US and England in The New Quarterly, Room of One’s Own, The Antigonish Review, Cormorant, A Maritime Christmas, New Stories and Memories of the Season (2008), In The Open(Roseway, 1996), The Nashwaak Review, Pottersfield Portfolio, Canadian Author, Minus Tides, Shout and Speak Out Loud, Tulane Review, Poetechniciens, The Gentle Reader and other journals.

Her work has been broadcast on Bragg Community Network TV; CBC Radio Weekend (Nfld.); Ashes, Paper and Beans (radio, NB); Ryerson Radio (Toronto); University of Toronto Radio and BBC (Newcastle, England).

A founding member of The Amethyst Review, Penny also freelanced with Truro Magazine, judged provincial and national poetry and short story competitions and edited two books of poetry. Penny is a past president of the Canadian Poetry Association. She also writes gospel songs, with four CDs to her credit (Going to Live Forever; Let the Rafters Ring; Oh, How the Angels Sang; and On that Day). Let the Rafters Ring (2006), Oh, How the Angels Sang (2006) and On that Day (2007) were nominated by Music Nova Scotia for Inspirational Recording for the Year. She has also published a Senior Adult Choir Christmas Musical (SATB), Follow the Star to Calvary.

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Don Hannah

www.donhannah.info

Don Hannah lives in Lunenburg County. His novels, The Wise and Foolish Virgins (Thomas Raddall Nomination) and Ragged Islands (2008 Thomas Raddall winner) are published by Knopf Canada. His plays include The Wedding Script (Chalmers Award), Rubber Dolly, Running Far Back, The Wooden Hill (AT&T OnStage Award), and Fathers and Sons. Shoreline, a collection of his plays, is published by Simon and Pierre and is available through U of T Press. He has been writer in residence at the Tarragon Theatre, the Canadian Stage Company, the University of New Brunswick, for the Yukon Public Library Service, and at UBC’s Green College. He was the inaugural Lee Playwright in Residence at the University of Alberta where he wrote While We’re Young, recently published by Playwrights Canada Press. He has written two musicals with singer/songwriter David Sereda, Love Jive and Siren Song, both for the Tarragon Theatre. Facing South, his opera, with composer Linda Catlin Smith, premiered at the 2003 World Stage Festival. For five years he was the director of the Tarragon Young Playwrights Unit. As a dramaturge, he has worked at the Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre (PARC), the National Theatre School, Vancouver’s Playwrights Theatre Centre, and the Banff Playwrights Colony. A founding member of PARC, he is also a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, and is a fellow of the MacDowell Colony. In 2008, he directed his play There is a Land of Pure Delight at Live Bait Theatre; his one man show The Woodcutter was produced in 2010 at the Working Title Festival in Edmonton. His second one person show, The Cave Painter was produced in 2011, and was awarded the 2012 Carol Bolt Award by the Playwrights Guild. Both one person shows are published by Playwrights Canada Press. His play Resident Aliens premiered at TNB in 2023.

Representation (Theatre):
Michael Petrasek
Kensington Literary Representation

34 St Andrew St.
Toronto, ON M5T 1K6
kensingtonlit@rogers.com
416 848 9648

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Renée Hartleib

Renée Hartleib is an author, writer, and writing mentor based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Her greatest passion is to help others connect with themselves and bring their creative dreams to life. Her first book, Writing Your Way: A 40-Day Path of Self-Discovery, was published in 2022. And her second book, Solo Camino: An Empowering Guide for Women was published in 2025.

As a writing mentor, Renée considers it an honour to work one-on-one with writers who are completing book drafts or who require a sensitive and thorough review of completed manuscripts.

Renée has also worked as a professional writer and editor for nearly 20 years. Her client list is long and has included the CBC, the National Film Board, the IWK Health Centre, Farmers Cooperative Dairy Limited, The Shaw Group, Saint Mary’s University, and Dalhousie University.

If you join Renée’s online community, you’ll receive inspiring blog posts on a variety of topics.

As a current member of the WFNS Board of Directors and a graduate of both the Humber School of Writers and the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program, Renée is proud to be part of the vibrant writing community of Atlantic Canada.

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Cindy Etter-Turnbull

Cindy Etter-Turnbull was born on November 24th, 1960 in Windsor Nova Scotia. After growing up in the village of Brooklyn, Hants County and educated in the West Hants school system, Cindy went on to further her university education at Mount Saint Vincent and Acadia. This was interrupted when the first of her two sons came along. With this new focus on raising her own young family, Cindy also started what turned out to be a twenty year career mentoring mentally challenged adults, both very rewarding jobs.

After a brief retirement, Cindy unexpectedly found herself writing her first book. Her outgoing personality, keen sense of humour, creativity and determination led to Fine Lines, a celebration of clothesline culture. A natural letter writer, avid gardener, and feisty fisherperson, Cindy also enjoys crewel embroidery, home decorating (or moving furniture all the time!) and community volunteer work. She is currently working on a play and a children’s book.

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