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Raddall Reading: Jaime Burnet in conversation with Erin Wunker (Halifax)

Jaime Burnet, author of the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award-winning novel milktooth, sits down with Erin Wunker, author and associate professor in Dalhousie’s Department of English, to discuss writing, fiction, storytelling, and the impact of the Raddall award.

Presented by the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia in partnership with Dalhousie Libraries. Sales provided by King’s Co-op Bookstore.

Location: Glitter Bean Café (5896 Spring Garden Rd, Halifax), a wheelchair-accessible venue with non-gendered facilities

Date of public reading: Thursday, March 26, 2026 (5:30pm to 7pm Atlantic; doors 5pm)

Attendance are welcome; no registration required

A powerful work of contemporary literary fiction set in Cape Breton and Scotland exploring the clandestinity of queer abuse from the Thomas Raddall Award–shortlisted author of Crocuses Hatch from Snow.

Sorcha is over the hook-ups and gay haunts of her twenties. At thirty-one what she wants, more than anything, is to have a baby. Then she meets Chris— with her buttoned-up plaid, 90s heartthrob hair, and grand romantic gestures— and things get serious. Fast. Though Sorcha’s friends find her new partner problematic, Sorcha has an explanation for everything.

As Chris’s moods turn volatile and Sorcha becomes increasingly isolated, Chris paints an idyllic picture of domestic bliss in Cape Breton. Sorcha is all in: if her conservative religious upbringing taught her anything, it’s how to save. Plus, Chris promises Sorcha the thing she wants most—a baby.

But when Sorcha becomes pregnant and Chris’s abuse escalates, Sorcha realizes she must escape the life they’ve built together, just as she escaped her own stifling family years before.

When Sorcha’s estranged Aunt Agnes, a retired midwife, messages Sorcha out of the blue, her bothy in the Scottish Highlands seems the perfect place to hide. As the bundle of cells in Sorcha’s belly diligently divides, she daydreams that Agnes will deliver the baby and they’ll stay in Scotland, where Chris can’t find them. And where, just maybe, Sorcha could build the sort of family she’s always ached for.

Exploring the clandestinity of queer abuse, the fierceness of friendship, and the magic of found family, milktooth is a bold, inventive, lyrical and darkly funny story about finding the strength to cut away what’s harmed you and create something entirely new.

(Synopsis courtesy of publisher Nimbus Publishing)

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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