Poetry (YA)

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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Elizabeth Glenn-Copeland

I am an author, theatre artist and arts educator with more than four decades of professional experience. As a theatre artist, I have toured with Second City doing improv comedy, played the Witch in Hansel and Gretl with the Honolulu Symphony and told my original stories at the Toronto International Storytelling Festival. My arts education credits include work with Learning Through the Arts, World Vision, and the Storytellers School of Toronto.

I served as Artistic Director of KPH Theater Productions in Miramichi, N.B. from 2012 to 2016, and along with my husband, Beverly Glenn Copeland, completed half a dozen artist residencies* in N.B. schools. I was honoured to serve as Writer-in-Residence* for James M. Hill High School in 2015. (*Funding support through NB Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture.)

In February 2016 I was part of the faculty at the San Miguel Writers Conference (San Miguel de Allende, Mexico), and led the creative writing workshop at the Knowlton Literary Festival in Knowlton, Quebec in October.

In 2017, I returned to Mount Allison University to indulge myself in two years of full time study of eco-poetry, feminist philosophy, sustainability in education and medieval studies. Thanks to MTA, in the summer of 2017 I completed a residency to research and create a one-act spoken-word play entitled, “Bearing Witness”.

During my tenure as 2018 Writer-in-Residence at Joggins Fossil Institute, I researched and wrote — “Daring to Hope at the Cliff’s Edge: Pangea’s Dream Remembered”: an art/science collaboration and conversation between myself and the three-hundred million year old rock. The theme: how to find what Buddhist eco-philosopher, Joanna Macy calls Active Hope as we stand at this cliff’s edge in our evolution as a species. The book was launched in Sackville, N.B. on Sept. 29, 2019 by Chapel Street Editions.

Due to covid, my cross country tour to promote this book was cancelled, but late 2020 saw a resurgence of interest in the work and its message of hope. I participated in the Writing for Change series launched by The Rose Theater in Brampton, ON. An exciting variation on this theme will be happening virtually on March 21 at The Rose with spoken-word artist extraordinaire, Ian Keteku.

Since moving to Spencers Island in Jan. 2021, I am making new writing and peforming friends and will be part of the Shipwright Sessions (Ships Company Theater) in Aug. 2021.

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Camilla Thompson

Camilla Thompson is an author, educator and storyteller on a mission to improve mental health education and literacy across Canada. As the director of Sunnyside Self Wellness and author of Skating Late, Camilla introduces people of all ages and abilities to writing and wellness practices proven to increase peace, positivity, health and happiness, and shares inspiring stories of hope determination and community involvement.

Camilla’s debut book, Skating Late, is a work of Canadiana in children’s literature that features a confident and creative gender neutral fox that all Canadian kids can relate to. Parents, teachers and grandparents will love to read this tale aloud, but it is best enjoyed when recited by the author during class visits and community events.

“After sleeping in and waking up to a Canadian conundrum, Skating Late to school is the only solution. Facing some slippery situations along the way, is it possible to make it on time? Skating Late is a fast paced adventure full of danger, dread and determination! Strap on your skates, buckle your helmet, and prepare yourself for a wild ride!”

As a dynamic educator and entertaining storyteller with a passion for whole self wellness and mental health education, Camilla is excited to visit classrooms and communities across Canada sharing her Sunnyside stories and introducing the writing and wellness practices that have been life enriching at her best times and life saving during her most difficult trials.

Camilla is a disability entrepreneur returning to the workforce after her career was interrupted by kidney disease and the Covid 19 pandemic. During her three year healing hiatus, Camilla dedicated herself to her writing and studies. She wishes to thank The Halifax Humanities Society for offering free education in the humanities to Nova Scotians who face barriers to traditional education. This life changing educational opportunity is based on The Foundation Year Programme offered by the University of King’s College, and is is made possible by the generosity of local professors who donate their time and tutelage to help participants develop as writers, speakers and thinkers.

Camilla’s second book, Canada’s Ocean Letdown, is the story of a Come From Away grandchild who has an unfortunate introduction to the shores of Nova Scotia when they are stung by a jellyfish, attacked by swarm of mosquitoes and have to eat a peanut butter and SAND sandwich picnic for lunch. Her storytelling performances of this tale are receiving lots of laughs across the province. It will be illustrated by Canadiana artist Bonnie Lemaire and published in March of 2024.

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John J. Guiney Yallop

John J. Guiney Yallop is a Two-Spirited writer and academic. His writing and research includes poetic inquiry and narrative inquiry. John is interested in stories of lived experience, identities, emotions, communities and gratitude. His most recent book is OUT of Place.

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shalan joudry

shalan joudry is a writer, performance artist and storyteller. She has published two books of poetry, “Generations Re-merging” (Gaspereau Press 2014) and “Waking Ground” (Gaspereau Press 2020). She published the theatrical play, “Elapultiek” (Pottersfield Press 2019) and was recently the editor of “The Art of Mi’kmaw Basketry” (Formac 2023). shalan lives with her family in Bear River First Nation, Nova Scotia.

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Darryl Whetter

Dr. Darryl Whetter is the author of 4 books of fiction and 3 poetry collections. His collection of stories, A Sharp Tooth in the Fur, was named to The Globe and Mail’s Top 100 Books of 2003. His debut novel, The Push & the Pull, was released in Spring 2008. Origins, his 2012 collection of poems, concerns energy, evolution and extinction as they can be observed at Joggins, Nova Scotia. Professor Whetter edited the nomination dossier of the Joggins Fossil Cliffs in their successful bid for inclusion on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. He has published nearly 20 stories in journals and anthologies, including Best Canadian Stories, The Fiddlehead, PRISM, Prairie Fire, The New Quarterly and Best Asian Short Stories 2020. In 2021, he won the Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award.

Darryl holds a PhD in English from UNB and has published or presented papers on contemporary literature in France, Sweden, Canada, Germany, the United States, India, Singapore, Australia and Iceland. Nearly 100 of his commissioned book reviews have appeared in venues such as The Toronto Star, The National Post, The Vancouver Sun, The Montreal Gazette, The Globe and Mail, and Detroit’s Metro Times. Darryl Whetter has been a professor of English and Creative Writing at various universities in Canada and was the coordinator of the creative writing program at Dalhousie from 2008-2010. In the mid-2000s, he was a regular panelist on the national CBC Radio program “Talking Books.”

His most recent books are the climate-crisis novel Our Sands, from Penguin RH (2020) and the anthology Teaching Creative Writing in Asia, from Routledge (2021)

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Gloria Wesley

Gloria Ann Wesley is an African Nova Scotian writer. She is a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University and has taught at all grade levels. She holds an Honorary Doctorate from Mount St. Vincent University. She resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia. To My Someday Child (1975), enables her to hold the distinction of being the first published Black Nova Scotian poet. Wesley’s poetry appears in three Canadian anthologies. Her novel’s include Chasing Freedom (2011), short-listed for the Ann Connor Brimer Award. If This Is Freedom(2013) One Book Nova Scotia Award 2016. Abagail’s Wish, 2016) and Righting Canada’s Wrongs Africville (2019) Ontario Library Association’s Best Bets Award. Bringing a unique and interesting perspective about African Nova Scotians, her Black Loyalist history presentation and readings are exciting and designed for students from Grades 3-12.

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Carol Moreira

Novelist, journalist, editor, poet

Carol is a multi-genre novelist and a prize-winning journalist. She has published four young adult novels, three adult novels, and has a soon-to-be-released fantasy for adults. She is a contributor to the non-fiction immigration anthology Coming Here, Being Here (Guernica Editions).

Inside Information, Carol’s most recent novel for older teens, was published by Hippie Hill Press in August 2023. Riptides, a novel for younger teens, was published by Moose House Publications in 2021. Membrane, her YA fantasy, was first published by Fierce Ink Press in July, 2013 and has recently been re-issued by Hippie Hill Press. Her YA novel, Charged, was published by James Lorimer in 2008.

Carol is also the author of three adult novels: Too Good, published by Hippie Hill in 2023, Culture Shock, published by Hippie Hill in 2024 and The Pet-Sit, published by Hippie Hill in 2025. Her adult fantasy, Terminal Indicators, will be published by Hippie Hill in 2026. She is one of more than 20 writers to participate in a group novel-writing adventure called Less Than Innocent published by Moose House in 2022.

UK-born Carol has also worked as a magazine and newspaper reporter and editor in Canada, England and Asia. She is a former editor of Celtic Life International magazine and is currently a partner in the Atlantic Canadian business news site www.entrevestor.com.

Carol has an English degree from London University and also studied Mandarin Chinese in Taipei, Shanghai and London’s Ealing School of Languages.

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Deirdre Dwyer

Deirdre Dwyer has been writing poetry since her teacher taught her about haiku in grade six. In the meantime, she’s worked as an English as a Second Language teacher in Tokyo, a Creative Writing instructor in Halifax, a Sessional Instructor of English in Windsor and a bookseller. Deirdre holds an MA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Windsor, and was a founding member of the Bourbon Street Poetry Society. She has worked with the Hope for Wildlife Society, a wildlife rehabilitation facility on the Eastern Shore. Deirdre was also Coordinator of the Musquodoboit Harbour Farmers’ Market. She was chair of the Musquodoboit Harbour and Area Community Association, and has been writing prose about her three years in Japan and her subsequent travels; and a writing workshop in Iceland in 2019.

When she visits schools, she can talk about the differences between Japanese culture, discuss Nova Scotian wildlife, show pictures of some of the wildlife she met at Hope for Wildlife, do writing exercises relating to either prose or poetry connected to these discussions, and read and discuss her own work with the students. She can also discuss life in Iceland, publishing books and in journals.

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Geoff Butler

Geoff Butler is a painter, writer and book illustrator. He was born on Fogo Island, Nfld., near Brimstone Head which has been designated by the Flat Earth Society as one of the four corners of the earth.

Geoff practices his art daily so as not to fall over the edge. He has self-published five books: Art of War: Painting it out of the Picture (1990); The Look of Angels: Angels in Art (2004), a collection of poems, songs, stories, paintings and drawings; and With Every Breath We Take (2007), a modern fable in which a snowflake helps put an end to war; Our Own Little World: in paintings and verse (2013); and One Swallow Makes a Summer Meal: allegories in paintings and verse (2016). Every now and then, he strolls down Alphabet Soup Road to write and illustrate children’s books.

He is a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland and Syracuse University. He also studied at the Art Students’ League in New York City. His paintings have been exhibited at, and toured by, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. He has been a visual arts recipient of a Nova Scotia Arts Council Creation grant and a Canada Council Established Artist grant. In 2006, he was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. He lives in the small village of Granville Ferry, N.S.

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