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Shelf Indulgence book club (virtual) with Michael Hamm

Shelf Indulgence is a quarterly book club series led by members of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS). All selected books are authored by Nova Scotians. Registration for each meet-up is free.

Join guest host Michael Hamm (of indie bookseller darling Bookmark Halifax) and series host Linda Hudson (WFNS Program Manager) for a discussion of Frank Parker Day’s Rockbound (1928; Penguin Canada, 2020).

Get your copy of the book from publisher Penguin Canada, from your local independent bookstore, or from your local library.

About the book: Rockbound is the timeless novel of Nova Scotia’s South Shore.

A dreamy, optimistic, and youthful David Jung comes to claim his small share of the harsh domain of Rockbound, an island currently governed by the righteous and rapacious Uriah Jung. As David tries to find his way in a narrow and controlled world, he struggles for survival against his many conflicts and enemies: the sea, his own behaviour, his best friend Gershom Born, the secret love he has for his teacher Mary Dauphiny, and—inevitably—his Jung relatives and their greedy ambitions for money and power.

Rockbound is enormously evocative in the power, terror, and dramatic beauty of the Atlantic sea; unrelenting in its portrait of back-breaking labour, cunning bitterness, and family strife; and, most prominently, an incredible story of many passions—love, pride, greed, and yearning—and the rocky landscape of the human spirit.

(Synopsis from publisher Penguin Canada)

Location: Zoom

Date: Wednesday, Aug 12, 2026 (starting 7:00pm Atlantic)

Registration is free for WFNS members and for non-members

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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