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Foundations of Poetry (virtual) with Jaime Forsythe & Kathy Mac

Foundations of Poetry presents two authors’ approaches to the craft of poetry, coordinated to introduce new and emerging writers⁠—including those who’ve already published a few poems—to fundamental concepts, a variety of tried-and-tested techniques, and the unique perspectives of the collaborating instructors.

The weekly classes and optional writing assignments (homework!) in this edition of Foundations of Poetry will introduce participants to common and uncommon subjects, forms, and literary devices. Team-taught by Jaime Forsythe and Kathy Mac, the workshop will interest all sorts of writers, who will discover that the ways poets approach their craft can improve language use in any form or genre.

  • Week 1⁠, Writing Sensations (led by Kathy Mac): An intro to the workshop and to writing from the body. We’ll play with couplets for a bit too.
  • Week 2⁠, Sounds (led by Jaime Forsythe): We’ll listen in on some of the elements that shape the auditory experience of a poem, from assonance to alliteration to rhythm.
  • One-week break to observe the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (Sept 30).
  • Week 3, Writing Relations (led by Kathy Mac): Being the ‘form-freak’ for this workshop, Kathy will lead us in messing with sonnets.
  • Week 4, The Poetic Line (led by Jaime Forsythe): We’ll explore the ways lineation and line breaks may shape, emphasize, or subvert meaning in a poem. 
  • Week 5, Poetic Representations (led by Kathy Mac): We’ll be getting more sophisticated in our understanding of form, so let’s mess with the pantoum and/or the villanelle while we talk about poetic representations of events in the world.
  • Week 6, An Ongoing Practice (led by Jaime Forsythe): We’ll discuss ideas for maintaining a creative practice in one’s day-to-day life, whether that be through participating in your local literary community, publishing, sharing your work, or more.

About the instructors:

Jaime Forsythe‘s third collection of poetry is forthcoming with Wolsak & Wynn in spring, 2026. Her previous books are I Heard Something (Anvil Press, 2018) and Sympathy Loophole (Mansfield Press, 2012). Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Arc, EVENT, Grain, The Malahat Review, Geist, The Ampersand Review, and This Magazine, among others. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and currently lives close to where she grew up in Nova Scotia/Mi’kma’ki.
Kathy Mac’s first poetry book won the Gerald Lampert Award, and was nominated for the Governor General’s; her third was nominated for The Fiddlehead Poetry Prize. She has also published two books of writing instruction and, as Kathleen McConnell, a book of essays. In 2023, she retired from teaching the Creative Writing program at St. Thomas University, NB. She now makes her home in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (near Halifax, Nova Scotia).

Recommended experience level: New and emerging poets, including those who are more experienced in other forms (About recommended experience levels)

Participant cap: 12

Location: Zoom

Dates of 6-week workshop: Tuesdays, Sept 16 + Sept 23 + Oct 7 + Oct 14 + Oct 21 + Oct 28, 2025 (7:00pm to 9:00pm Atlantic)
[Please note: there is no workshop session on Sept 30.]

Registration for 2025 General Members: $219

Registration for non-members: $249 (includes discounted fall 2025 General Membership in WFNS)

Registration for this workshop is closed.

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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 and 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.

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 information, strategies, and skills that suit their career stage. 

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 you’re uncertain of your experience level with regard to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca