School Grade Specialty

Marcia Harding

BIO: Marcia Pierce grew up in Lockeport, N.S. When she was fifteen, her family moved to Liverpool where she met her future husband, Craig Harding. After completing their university education, they returned to Liverpool where they raised two children and lots of lab puppies.

Education: Acadia University – B.Sc. in Psychology (1970) B.Ed. (1971) Honours

Mt. St. Vincent University – Masters of Education (1993) Senate Medal of Distinction

During her 33 years as an elementary school teacher, she enjoyed writing, directing and producing plays with her students.

While serving as a board member for The Astor Theatre, Winds of Change (Drama Group) and Liverpool ‘s International Theatre Festival, she co-produced several stage plays, including Mermaid’s Tale (winning entry in LITF 2014).

Helping to organize and promote fundraisers for the Astor Theatre, her proudest achievement was A TRIBUTE TO SABLE ISLAND. Zoe Lucas held the audience spellbound with her amazing SLIDES of wild horses projected on the BIG screen. Performances included sea-themed songs by soloists and the Girls Choir, readings, displays of photographs and paintings and a reception – something for everyone. Full house!

To honour her cherished friend, Joyce Barkhouse, author of Pit Pony, Marcia produced the Pit Pony Audio Book in cooperation with actor/narrator Richard Donat.

As a certified fitness instructor, Marcia taught a variety of exercises classes in Queens County over the years. Her interests include dancing, hiking, skating, swimming, sailing, and best of all, walking Summerville Beach with her family and their dogs.

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Cooper Lee Bombardier

Cooper Lee Bombardier is a queer, trans writer and visual artist living in Halifax. He is the author of the memoir-in-essays Pass With Care, a finalist for the 2021 Firecracker Award in Nonfiction. His writing appears in The Kenyon Review, The Malahat Review, Ninth Letter, CutBank, Nailed Magazine, Longreads, Narratively, BOMB, and The Rumpus; and in 18 anthologies, including the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology, The Remedy–Essays on Queer Health Issues, and Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Speculative Fiction From Transgender Writers, which won a 2018 American Library Association Stonewall Book Award. The Huffington Post listed Cooper as one of “10 Transgender Artists Who Are Changing The Landscape Of Contemporary Art.” He teaches in the MFA in Creative Nonfiction program at University of King’s College.

FB: cooperfrickinleee Twitter: @CooperLeeB IG: cooper_lee_bombardier

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Beth Ann Knowles

Originally from Dartmouth, Beth Ann completed a science degree at Dalhousie University. She works as an online ESL Teacher and Teacher Mentor, and coaches youth soccer in the summer. Beth Ann is passionate about the environment and enjoys being active. Early morning runs, bike rides, paddles, and yoga are her favourite things. She lives on the South Shore of Nova Scotia with her husband, two sons, and their dog, Gordie.

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Nancy Rose

Nancy is the author/photographer of 4 picture books in the Secret Life of Squirrels series, and two board books featuring Oakley the Squirrel. She is a retired high school Family Studies teacher and Guidance Counsellor. In 2010 she started making squirrel size props (a barbecue, mailbox, washer and dryer, etc) and dioramas, and she captured photos of backyard squirrels when they explored her sets to find the hidden nuts. Her humorous photos of the squirrels appeared online and in newspapers and magazines world-wide. In 2014 her first children’s book, The Secret Life of Squirrels, was published in Canada, U.S., Japan and South Korea.

For classroom visits, Nancy brings along a big tote box filled with a variety of her homemade props and she talks about the challenges of writing a story that is illustrated with photos of her backyard squirrels as well as the fun of creating her props with found, recycled and dollar store materials. She invites students to think about what the next adventures of her squirrels could be if they were writing the next book and how they would make the props and get the squirrels to interact.

Nancy is available for live classroom presentations and also for Google Meet/ Zoom sessions, which went over very well in the 2020-2022, and with schools in other provinces.

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Shelley Thompson

Shelley Thompson is an actor, screenwriter, and activist based in Wolfville, in Mi’kma’ki (NS). She trained at The Royal Academy of Drama.c Art, the Canadian Film Centre, Women in the Directors’ Chair, the New York Writers’ Lab, and the Whistler Producer’s Lab.

As an actor she’s received and been nominated for Gemini and ACTRA awards for her work in film and television, including THE TRAILER PARK BOYS, and feature films SPLINTERS, and THE CHILD REMAINS among others.

Her short films have screened internationally with the most
recent, DUCK DUCK GOOSE, winning Best Atlantic Short at FIN Halifax. It was selected by Telefilm Canada’s Not Short on Talent at Clermont-Ferrand, and was a finalist in CBC’s Short Film Faceoff.

Her first feature film, Dawn, Her Dad & The Tractor premiered at INSIDE OUT International Film Festival in Toronto,selling out in Toronto, Halifax and London. (BFI Flare) and also screened in Whistler, BC, (Nominated for the Borsos Prize) Amsterdam’s Roze Filmdagen and many others across the US, Canada and in Germany. Among many prizes and awards, the film recently won the 2022 Nova Scotia MasterWorks Award.

Thompson is working on a full slate of projects: a second novel (GALILEE JUMP), and TV and cinema projects under the banner of her emerging production company, Rusty Tractor Productions Inc.

A committed LGBTQ+2SP ally, Thompson is proud parent to singer/ songwriter T. Thomason, a trans man who inspires her, every day.

ROAR, her first novel, is being published by Nimbus/Vantage Press in Nova Scotia, in late October 2023.

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Hui Zhou

“It may take time, but dreams can come true.” This speaks to Hui Zhou, a bilingual nonfiction writer with a long career in natural science.

Born, educated, worked, married, became a mother and a respected senior scientist in her home city Beijing, Hui created her next opportunity to Canada. In the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, she researched in her favourite field, entomology and obtained a Master of Science Degree, dreamed for a long time, from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.

Still, Hui explores wider in science, but she never stops writing that had been one of her hobbies for most of her life. Since 2016, she has focused more on writing, one more dream come true.

Many of her nonfiction stories have been published in print and heard on radio broadcast since the 1990’s. The one titled Grandpa Santa was published in The Chronicle Herald and three other Atlantic daily newspapers on a same day. It was about how her daughter at six excitedly learned about Christmas in her birth country where Christmas has never been a holiday. A piece about how Hui was introduced to the history of the Halifax Explosion, titled The Path from an Old Newspaper, was long-listed for Surrey Muse Art and Literature Awards 2022.

Running Wild with Bossy Boy (2018) is Hui’s first nonfiction photograph-storybook for children about a flock of free-run backyard chickens, focusing on their different personalities, or to them, chicken-alities. Children can easily understand chicken’s personalities, learn the biology through the interesting stories and imagine how happy the chickens are when running freely.

In Hui’s second nonfiction photograph-storybook, Puppy Oland (2023), children will meet the lively dog Oland and discover what Oland liked at his puppy training, if Oland was a good swimmer, how many corn ears Oland retrieved from neighboring campers, whom Oland once badly offended . . .

The success, in writing, photographing, book design, self-publishing, marketing and much more, encourages Hui’s further works for children and her Nonfiction Collection for all ages.

Hui loves animals, including insects that she has studied and especially now speaking for about their beauty, their irreplaceable importance to the ecosystem and their dramatic population decline because of human activities.

Being one of the Council members in Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, Hui is involved into the program, “Writers in the Schools” WITS.

Gardening, a heritage from her grandpa, remains her favorite pastime.

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Geraldine Tuck

Geraldine Tuck writer, world traveller and retired elementary teacher, is known for her Mystery Marauder Series for readers 8-14. Setting is along the south shore of Nova Scotia during the 1930’s. The first three books deal with rum running, gold mining and the Oak Island Mystery. All are suitable for grades 3-6. During a school visit, students are dressed as characters and books are discussed. Time to draw a treasure map or give a verbal lesson, ‘Improving Detail’, is also offered.

New: Checkout a recent interview in the WITS Video library.

Her newest book, Halifax Explosion Mystery, was published in time for the 100 anniversary of the explosion. The content is suited to grades 5-7. The hour visit involves: a power point presentation on the history of the explosion, an explanation how artifacts and newspapers are used to plot a story and an interactive lesson showing students how she weave facts with fiction.

Midnight Marauders ,Moonlight Marauders, Mystery Marauders and Halifax Explosion Mystery appear on the Education Book Order List for Nova Scotia teachers. Contact GlenMargaret Publishing. gmp@eastlink.ca for large orders. You can buy directly from the author’s email, intuitionwg@gmail.com

Check out Geraldine’s website: geraldinetuck.com

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Sal Sawler

Sal Sawler is the award-winning author of three non-fiction books: 100 Things You Don’t Know About Nova Scotia; 100 Things You Don’t Know About Atlantic Canada – For Kids; Be Prepared: The Frankie MacDonald Guide to Life, the Weather, and Everything; and one picture book: When the Ocean Came to Town (illustrated by Emma FitzGerald).

Be Prepared was nominated for both Hackmatack and Forest of Reading Awards, and won a Moonbeam Children’s Award. 100 Things You Don’t Know About Atlantic Canada – For Kids was also nominated for a Hackmatack Award.

When they’re not writing books, Sal is working as a publicist for graphic novel publisher Conundrum Press, reviewing children’s literature, and writing web content for tech companies. They live in Nova Scotia with their partner, two kids, two dogs, and two cats.

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Julian Smith

Julian Mortimer Smith has published more than a dozen science fiction and fantasy stories in some of the world’s top speculative fiction magazines, including Asimov’s, Terraform, Lightspeed, and Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy. His first collection, The World of Dew and Other Stories, will be published in 2021 by Indiana University Press. Julian is a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and SF Canada.

Julian lives in Yarmouth and spends his days writing copy for a web design company. He previously made a living as a freelance editor, working on projects ranging from romance novels to board games. When he lived in Edinburgh he worked as the books section editor of The Skinny, a Scottish arts and entertainment magazine.

In 2017, Julian led the “So You Want to Write Science Fiction” session at the WFNS in Halifax along with Professor Jason Hazlam. In April 2018, he led the four-week “Out of Your Head, Onto the Page” workshop at Waves of Confetti Creative Space in Yarmouth. He has also delivered workshops at schools throughout Southwest Nova as part of the Writers in the Schools program and has been an invited panel speaker at Hal-Con.

Julian has a bachelor’s degree in English literature from McGill Univeristy in Montreal and a Master’s in Communication and Culture from York University in Toronto. You can find out more about his writing at his website: http://julianmortimersmith.com/

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Sarah Mian

Sarah Mian’s debut novel, When the Saints, won the Jim Connors Book Award, the Margaret & John Savage First Book Award, and was a finalist for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. She co-wrote the screenplay adaptation for Lady Hammond Entertainment, and is now working on her second novel, The World in Awful Sleep.

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