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WITS grades P-6

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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Mireille Messier

Mireille Messier is a Montreal-born, Ottawa-raised and now Nova Scotia-based children’s author with a background in theatre and broadcasting. She has published over thirty picture books and chapter books, some in French, some in English. Some have even won awards!

When she is not writing books, Mireille works in children’s television as a scriptwriter for various programs. She also enjoys doing translation and corporate writing of youth-oriented material for such clients as the Dairy Farmers of Canada, General Mills, Scholastic Canada, TFO, Kraft Foods and Via Rail.

On average, Mireille gives one hundred in-person and virtual school presentations per year to French, French immersion and English groups across Canada.

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Heidi Tattrie Rushton

Heidi Tattrie Rushton has been a freelance reporter, event planner, international recruiter, and preschool teacher. Like her Pet Tales protagonist, she has experience working at an animal shelter, was a kid-activist through her writing, and rides the roller coaster of life with anxiety. She lives with her husband, two children, and a menagerie of tiny pets, including a cat-sized dog, two fish, and a snail.

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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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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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Janice Walsh-Cruddas

“Play” is one of Janice Walsh-Cruddas’ favourite words and learning tools and she incorporates it in her writing, teaching, and performance for children and young adults. Her book, Bird’s the Word!, has elicited giggles, questions, and yays from hundreds of budding wonders. She has written and directed over 20 plays, including the NS Human Rights Commission’s award-winning project ARC (Action, Responsibility, Choice), The Kerplunk in the Kingdom, and the Atlantic Fringe Festival hit, A Wee Drop of Aesop. As a children’s programmer with Halifax Public libraries for over 20 years, a former co-host of the radio show “Music for Young Earth Citizens” (with her 6-year-old son), and the founder of MITE Theatre, “Jan-Jan” has helped youth discover delight in Shakespeare, singing, theatre games, and the joyful act of communicating.  She is humbled and grateful to be a Treaty person who writes, sings, reads, and plays in Punamu’kwati’jk (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.)

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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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Wanda Baxter

Wanda Baxter lives on an old farmstead in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, with her long-time partner, Randy, their gregarious cat George, and an ever-changing assortment of wildlife. Wanda has Masters degrees in English (with Creative Writing) and Environmental Design, and she works primarily for environmental non-profit organizations. She is also an organic gardener, a ground bee and Monarch butterfly guardian, an amateur musician and country road rollerblader.

Wanda’s much-loved book If I had an Old House on the East Coast, illustrated beautifully by Kat Frick Miller, is in its 4th printing. Her brand new book She is Hope for Wildlife is based on the life and work of Hope Swinimer, the founder and director of the wildlife rescue Hope for Wildlife. An inspiring young reader for ages 6 – 11 and illustrated by Leah Boudreau, She is Hope for Wildlife is available in stores and via the wildlife rescue’s online store as of October, 2024. She is Hope for Wildlife is published by Nimbus Publishing, and a portion of the profit goes to Hope for Wildlife.

https://nimbus.ca/store/she-is-hope-for-wildlife.html

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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