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Carol Bruneau reads from The Little Way (Halifax)

Join us at Booktoberfest 2026 for a reading and Q&A with author Carol Bruneau, who will read from her latest novel, The Little Way (Nimbus Publishing):

Basically, the world has two types of people…those who garden and those who don’t.

Isla Fownes knows flowers. After running her shop, Flower Power!, in the Halifax suburb of Fairfield for nearly fifteen years, she can make a casket spray in her sleep. (She also knows that no one complains if funeral roses don’t bloom.)

A dedicated mother and daughter on the cusp of fifty, Isla spends every spare minute caring for her aging father, Arthur, a passionate conservationist, and her aimless daughter, Rache, an out-of-work would-be artist who’s just shared the surprising news of her pregnancy (and just who is the father?). That is, until a handsome widower’s sailboat unceremoniously sinks in the waters off her Northwest Arm home, and Isla is saved from a Brönte-like spinsterdom. If only Lester would stop talking about how much her home might be worth.

In a city eroding both physically and spiritually, “hopelessly” romantic Isla struggles to keep her flower shop afloat despite the threat of conglomerates, vandals, and petty criminals; protect her coveted property from vulture capitalists, infilling, and soulless “starter castles”; and shore up her heart as she asks herself, once and for all, what kind of love she deserves.

From one of Canada’s most beloved storytellers and “a master” (Quill & Quire) of her craft, Carol Bruneau’s The Little Way is a profound and authentic portrayal of one woman’s mission to redefine herself on her own terms.

Carol will sell and sign copies before and after this reading as part of Booktoberfest’s book market.

Based in Nova Scotia/Mi’kma’ki, Carol Bruneau is the author of twelve books—four short fiction collections, one nonfiction book, and seven novels including The Little Way, a new release this fall by Nimbus Publishing/Vagrant Press. Her 2020 novel, Brighten the Corner Where You Are, was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award, and her most recent short story collection, Threshold, was shortlisted for last year’s Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Her 2018 novel, A Circle on the Surface, won the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction, and her first novel, Purple for Sky, won both the Dartmouth Book Award and the Raddall Award in 2021.

She lives in Halifax with her husband and a teeny-tiny mini-panther named Moody. She’s at work (slowly) on her eighth novel.

Photo by Snickerdoodle Photography

Location: BMO Community Room (2nd floor), Halifax Central Library (5440 Spring Garden Rd, Halifax)
     This is a wheelchair-accessible venue with all-gender and gendered washrooms.

Date: Saturday, Oct 3, 2026 (11:30am to 12:00pm)

All are welcome!

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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