Alice White
Alice White’s poetry has appeared in publications including Arc, The Ex-Puritan, The Fiddlehead, The Poetry Review, PRISM, and The Threepenny Review, and was featured in Best New Poets 2023.
Poetry (adult)
Jessica Joy Hiemstra
Jessica Joy Hiemstra is a visual artist, writer and designer living in Gunning Cove, Shelburne County, Mi’kma’ki. When she’s not gardening or writing, she’s drawing. She especially loves to make hand-drawn animations. At the moment she’s making drawings to accompany 41 short poems from writers across the country. These poems, edited by herself and Gillian Sze, will be published by Baseline Press in 2027. A book of essays, written in conversation with the art of Claire Wilks, is expected with Exile Editions in 2026. On the back of that book it says: don’t tell me I cannot love.
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Shelagh Meagher
My work was first published in 1995 with a garden design book. I subsequently studied fiction at Humber College in their summer course and through a writers workshop in Geneva. My first two novels, ‘Colour Studies’ and ‘Pearls in the Ashes’ were mentored by Sarah Sheard and Karen Connelly, respectively, through the Humber College 8-month mentorship program available at that time.
My writing skills have been developed through the writing, editing, and completion of my first three novels with invaluable feedback given by editors, mentors and readers for each one.
I’m an experienced presenter at all levels, including a TEDX talk (viewable on my website).
I’ve lived in Toronto, London (England), Milan, Geneva and Detroit. I moved to LaHave, Nova Scotia in 2015.
Kathy Mac
Kathy Mac (she/her) has published three books of poetry (Roseway Publishing), two books on the craft of writing (Wording Around Press), and, as Dr. Kathleen McConnell, a book of essays (Wolsak and Wynn Publishers). Her work has been a finalist for several Canadian national and regional awards, and even won some of them.
After 22 years teaching creative writing at St Thomas University in Fredericton New Brunswick, Mac is delighted to be back in Nova Scotia. She lives in Nme’kaqnuk (Sambro Head) near Halifax in the unceded traditional territory of the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy peoples.
Norma Shephard
‘Why We Remember‘
The personal and domestic side of war is often revealed in War letters. My presentations on the importance of firsthand accounts and the digitalization of hand-written accounts is ideal for Remembrance Day observations and/or Canadian History studies. Access to my full media kit on the book Dear Harry; A Canadian War Story Told Through Letters, can be found here.
‘Social History Relevance Revealed Through Material Artifacts’
As the director of the Mobile Millinery Museum, I have been educating students, seniors, and others on Canadian Social History through the use of those most personal of historic artefacts: clothing and accessories. Examples of the available presentation topics, which we adapt for student audiences, can be seen in the Museum Presentations Information Kit.
Clare Goulet
Writer of essays, poems, stories and hybrid forms; editor/consultant for academic and literary manuscripts in arts and sciences. My latest book is Graphis scripta: writing lichen (Gaspereau Press 2024). Research passions are metaphor, biopoetics, polyphony, & hybrid scholarly-creative-botanical forms.
I teach undergrad courses in creative writing and editing at the Mount, where I run its Writing Centre and collaborate with diverse partners on and off campus. First adjunct faculty to win its university-wide faculty teaching award. As an educator I aim for transformative, inclusive learning experiences.
As a British/québécoise hybrid, raised in a mixed-race family, schooled in different countries, please don’t ask me where I’m from! I survive my writing deadlines with wildly bad dancing. Total lichen obsessive.
In my writing workshops for adults and youth, I love renewing a person’s relationship to their own writing practice.
I live in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, Nova Scotia, on a road that escapes into trail and woods and ocean along the Northwest Arm.
Lindsey Harrington
Lindsey Harrington is a Nova Scotian writer with Newfoundland roots. Her fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry are deeply influenced by both places and her place within them. She’s a regular organizer and host of the dART Speak monthly writers’ open mic and other fun, local literary events. She’s also a professional facilitator, covering topics such as therapeutic writing, developing your personal writing strategy, performing your pieces, authors online, and ekphrasis, prompt, and response poetry.
In 2023, she was longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize, shortlisted for the Fiddlehead Creative Nonfiction Prize, and received a Canada Council grant to work on her childfree memoir. She’s excited to see what 2024 brings.
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Tina Capalbo
As a teacher, writer, mom, and life-long creative, Tina Capalbo has written everything from lesson plans, blogs, stories, and plays, to volunteer manuals, educator packs, and architectural proposals.
Tina completed her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education degrees at Western and her Master of Arts degree at Dalhousie. She has taught high school English and Drama in London and Halifax, English as an Additional Language in Tokyo, Toronto and Halifax, and thousands of writing classes online.
As a WITS author, Tina loves exploring stories with students and offers two workshops: (1) ‘Ari and the Very Loud Bird!’ is a workshop with early elementary students (grades P-3), featuring Ari, an upbeat, non-binary kiddo, who loves to sleep in. The workshop includes a lively reading, a visit with Ari the puppet, and a book chat. Students create a songbird, invent a bird call, and become a noisy chorus of birds. (2) ‘Main Character Energy’ is a creative nonfiction writing workshop for secondary students (grades 10-12). Students engage in life-writing, exploring elements of journaling, memoir, personal essay, personal monologue, and phase autobiography.
Jen Colclough
Jen Colclough is a Pushcart-nominated poet, novelist, and digital artist from Nova Scotia. She is the author of the poetry collection Our Little Agonies, published in 2025 by Montreal Publishing Company. She holds a Master of Arts in Classics from Western and a Bachelor of Arts from Acadia University. Her writings have been featured in numerous publications including CRAFT Literary, Tabula Rasa Review, Porch to Porch: A Maritime Haiku Anthology, Heimat Review, ionosphere, MORIA, and Free the Verse. In 2023, her graduate research appeared in the Journal of Ancient History.
In Winter 2024, Jen Colclough held the Shannon Residency at Beinn Mhàbu in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. She is currently querying an historical fiction novel and developing a serial drama for a major streaming service.
Freelance editing services available.