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WITS grades 10-12

Katie Arthur

Katie Arthur is the author and illustrator of Our Woolly Bear (Owlkids Books, 2024) and What if Marty Doesn’t Like My Party? (Owlkids Books, 2025). Katie holds an MA in English Literature & Creative Writing from Concordia University and is also a graduate of the Humber School for Writers. Her work has received support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, and her adult fiction has been longlisted twice for the CBC Short Story Prize. Born and raised in the suburbs of Southern Ontario, Katie now lives with her family on the rocky shores of Northeastern Nova Scotia.

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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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Donna Jones Alward

Since 2006, New York Times bestseller Donna Jones Alward has enchanted readers with stories of happy endings and homecomings that have won several awards and been translated into over a dozen languages. She’s worked as an administrative assistant, teaching assistant, in retail and as a stay-at-home-mom, but always knew her degree in English Literature would pay off, as she is now happy to be a full-time writer. Her new historical fiction tales blend her love of history with characters who step beyond their biggest fears to claim the lives they desire.

Donna currently lives in Nova Scotia, Canada, with her husband and cats. You can often find her near the water, either kayaking on the lake or walking the sandy beaches to refill her creative well.

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Vivian Zhou

Vivian Zhou is a Chinese-Canadian cartoonist and story artist. She is a graduate of Sheridan College’s Bachelor of Animation program. After working on a multitude of animated shows and award-winning short films as storyboard artist and occasionally director, she is now following her dream of making her own comics. Her debut graphic novel “Atana and the Firebird” released in 2023; book two of the Atana duology, “Atana and the Jade Mermaid”, is releasing in May 2025.

 

Visit her at https://vivianzhou.ca/

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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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RC Shaw

Travel Writing Workshop for Young People 

With RC Shaw

When we think of travel writing, we often conjure up tales of exotic, far-away lands. The reality is that some of the best adventures happen in our own backyards! Why not write them down?

Welcome seasoned English teacher and travel writer, RC Shaw, as he takes your students on an energetic writers’ workshop journey, from note-taking to planning to crafting a unique and personal travelogue. He will share tips and tricks from his own practice, and challenge students to write in a low-stakes series of travel-based prompts. Students will walk away with a fresh perspective on how to capture their own adventures in words.

RC Shaw has taught middle and high school English and science for over 15 years. He has experience crafting activities that meet a diverse array of curriculum outcomes, and he looks forward to tailoring his workshop to meet your students’ needs.

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Heather Fegan

Heather Fegan is a freelance journalist and writer. She is a graduate of the University of King’s College School of Journalism. Heather has been a storyteller since age five, regaling her family with “updates” in her own “Heather Chronicles.” Gutsy, which explores her personal experience of navigating Crohn’s Disease over twenty-five years, is her debut book.

She lives in Halifax, NS, with her husband and two daughters. Follow her chronicles at heatherfegan.ca and @theheatherchronicles.

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Lynette Richards

Lynette Richards has been cartooning as long as she can remember, and recently published her first graphic novel Call Me Bill (Conundrum Press 2022). She is a Craft Nova Scotia Master Artisan, who lives and works in Terence Bay NS, where she operates her business Rose Window Stained Glass. She chose Stained Glass as her professional medium because it was both a trade and an art that has used sequential narration for over 1000 years!

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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