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Crime Will Tell: A Celebration of Crime Writing

Join us for Crime Will Tell, a celebration of crime writing of all kinds! From cozy mysteries, to true crime, to thrillers, there is something here for every fan of mystery, mayhem, and murder.

Author Tom Ryan (The Treasure Hunters Club) hosts a panel of crime-writers, including Jane Doucet (Blood Typed), Vicki Grant (Death by Whoopee Cushion), Malcolm Kempt (A Gift Before Dying), and Marci Lin Melvin (Wednesday Night Whites). The authors will discuss their work, their craft, and what makes crime so compelling for readers and writers alike. Books will be available for purchase.

This event will also launch the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia’s crime fiction micro-anthology, The Blue Lobster Detective Agency.

Location: Room 301 (floor 3), Halifax Central Library (5440 Spring Garden Rd), a wheelchair-accessible venue with a wheelchair-accessible, all-gender and gendered bathrooms.

Date: Saturday, September 12, 2026, 11:00am to 1:30pm

Admission is free.

Crime Will Tell is a partnership between the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, Halifax Public Libraries, and Crime Writers of Canada. It is supported by Oyler MacDougall Wealth Advisors (BMO Nesbitt Burns).

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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