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Fiction (short stories)

Charlotte Ashley

Charlotte is a writer, editor, book historian, and bookseller living in Kjipuktuk, where she owns & runs Trident Booksellers & Cafe, Trident Roastery, and is Executive Chair of the Trident Conference for Writers of Speculative Fiction (TriCon.)

Her short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, PodCastle, Kaleidotrope and elsewhere, has been included in The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy and The Year’s Best Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy, and has been nominated for both the Aurora and Sunburst Awards. She has also written for TTRPGs, interactive fiction, musical theatre, and more.

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Melissa Kuipers

Melissa Kuipers (she/her) is a writer of fiction and creative non-fiction. Her book, The Whole Beautiful World, was published in 2017 with Brindle & Glass. Her fiction has been published in literary journals such as Joyland, Ryga, Ex-Puritan, and The Rusty Toque. She has personal essays in publications like The New Quarterly, Room, Plough, and The Ottawa Arts Review. She has taught creative writing extensively, both in high school and universities, has mentored emerging writers and has led multiple writing workshops. She received her Masters in the Field of Creative Writing from University of Toronto.

Raised on a chicken farm in Southern Ontario/Anishinabewaki, Melissa now resides in eastern Nova Scotia/Epekwitk aq Piktuk with her husband and two children.

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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.

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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.

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Adam Foulds

I am a poet and novelist originally from the UK, now a Canadian resident. I’ve published four novels and a poetry collection and bunch of other things. I’ve won a number of literary awards, including being shortlisted for the Booker Prize. I’ve taught creative writing at workshops and universities in Britain, Canada, and elsewhere.

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Teresa LaBella

Teresa LaBella grew up in Davenport, Iowa where the Mississippi River runs east to west. Her relentlessly Irish grandmother taught her to read fortunes with playing cards, tell a good story and brew a perfect pot of tea.

The people she interviewed as a journalist and met in her work in the arts and with nonprofit organizations colored her future fiction writing canvas and sharpened her love for storytelling.

Teresa published her first contemporary romance novel Reservations in 2013. Two more novels, Heartland and Belonging, a novella Love Unlikely and four short stories compiled for publication in Tales from Heartland complete the New Life in Love family saga series.

Her first novel in The UnMatchables romantic suspense series Danger Noted published in October 2020. Capital Strings, the author’s uniquely-Canadian political thriller, published in April 2021. Danger Revealed, the second novel in The UnMatchables series, was published by Purple Porcupine Publishing in July 2023. The author’s short story Fireflies was included for publication in the Writers on the Avenue Anthology Roads We’ve Taken, published in 2023 by Pearl City Press.

Teresa resides and writes from her home along Nova Scotia’s south shore.

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Sarah Butland

Biography:

Sarah Butland is a thriving freelance writer and reporter, an author loved by enough readers to make it worthwhile and a discombobulated conundrum who loves to hear new music, tell new tales and meet new authors. The recipient of a Writers Federation of New Brunswick competition with Blood Day the Short Story, her love of writing knows no genre. With articles and book reviews published in Maritime (EDIT), AH! At Home on the North Short, Atlantic Books Today, with some work with Pictou Advocate, Butland thrives through deadlines and diversity.

As a full time employee besides, and a mother to one young book lover, Butland volunteers with the Read by the Sea Literary Festival committee, hosts local workshops and manages the Pictou County Writers – New and Experienced Facebook group, highlighting the vast amount of talent on the North Shore.

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Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) uses the following terms to describe writers’ experience levels:

  • New writers: those with less than two years’ creative writing experience and/or no short-form publications (e.g., short stories, personal essays, or poems in literary magazines, journals, anthologies, or chapbooks).
  • Emerging writers: those with more than two years’ creative writing experience and/or numerous short-form publications.
  • Early-career authors: those with 1 or 2 book-length publications or the equivalent in book-length and short-form publications.
  • Established authors: those with 3 or 4 book-length publications.
  • Professional authors: those with 5 or more book-length publications.

Please keep in mind that each form of creative writing (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, writing for children, writing for young adults, and others) provides you with a unique set of experiences and skills, so you might consider yourself an ‘established author’ in one form but a ‘new writer’ in another.

Occasionally, WFNS uses the phrase “emerging and established writers/authors” to mean ‘writers and authors of all experience levels.’

The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the above definitions. A workshop’s participants should usually have similar levels of creative writing and / or publication experience. This ensures that each participant gets value from the workshop⁠ and is presented with info, strategies, and skills that suit their experience. 

For “intensive” and “masterclass” workshops, which provide more opportunities for peer-to-peer feedback, the recommended experience level should be followed closely.

For all other workshops, the recommended experience level is just that—a recommendation—and we encourage potential participants to follow their own judgment when registering.

If uncertain about your experience level with respect to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca