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Workshops, Sessions, and Panels

Our offerings include creative writing workshops (focused on the craft side of writing), professional development sessions (focused on the business side of writing), and free writers’ panels (highlighting authors who’ve mastered both).

Click on a specific workshop, PD session, or writers’ panel below for more details or to register online. You may also register by phone (902 423 8116). We encourage you to register for workshops & PD sessions early, as they have limited space and registration is subject to availability.

Registration,
Cancellation, &
Refund Policies
Recommended
Experience
Levels
Why We
Do Not Record
Virtual Events
Technical & Etiquette
Tips for Virtual
Workshops

Our 2023 winter/spring workshop schedule has concluded; we will announce our fall workshops in early September.

Ongoing & Upcoming

1113 Marginal Road

Halifax, NS B3H 4P7

902 423 8116

contact@writers.ns.ca

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Operational Investors

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is based in Kjipuktuk, in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship,” which Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725.
The treaties do not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognize Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) title and establish the rules for an ongoing relationship between nations.

© Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, 2021. All rights reserved.

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Registration, cancellation, & refund policies

Registration fees

All workshop/session fees are due upon registration. We accept registration and payment through our online shop (PayPal or credit card), by phone (credit card or e-transfer), and by mail (cheque or money order payable to WFNS) sent to WFNS, 1113 Marginal Road, Halifax, NS B3H 4P7. If paying by mail, please email or phone ahead so that we can reserve your place.

  • Payment by installment: For individuals who wish to participate in a specific workshop/session but who cannot meet the full payment upon registration, we are happy to arrange payment installments via post-dated cheques. Any payment installment plan must be discussed in advance, and the post-date cheques must be received by the start date of the workshop/session.

Cancelling your registration

If you wish to cancel your workshop/session registration, please contact us as soon as possible at communications@writers.ns.ca.

  • We are able to provide a full refund of registration fees if you cancel at least one week prior to the start date of the workshop/session.
  • We are able to provide an 80% refund of registration fees if you cancel within one week of the start date of the workshop/session.
  • We are unable to provide a refund in any amount for a cancellation made on or after the start date of the workshop/session.

Cancellation by WFNS

  • Insufficient enrollment: Should a workshop/session be cancelled as a result of insufficient enrollment, registrants will be notified immediately and registration fees will be reimbursed in full within two weeks.
  • Postponement: Should a workshop/session be postponed, registrants will be notified immediately and the workshop or session will be rescheduled for the first available date. In such a case, the cancellation periods pertaining to full and partial fee refunds will apply to the new start date.

Recommended Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) recommends that each workshop’s participants share a level or range of writing / publication experience. This is to ensure each participant gets value from the workshop⁠ and is presented with information, strategies, and skills that suit their current writing priorities.

To this end, the “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the following definitions developed by WFNS:

  • New writers: those who have been writing creatively for less than two years and/or have not yet been published in any form.
  • Emerging writers: those who have been writing creatively for less than five years and/or have some short publications (poems, stories, or essays) in literary magazines, journals, or anthologies.
  • Established writers/authors: those with numerous publications in magazines, journals, or anthologies and/or a full-length book publication.
  • Professional authors: those with two or more full-length book publications.

For “intensive” and “masterclass” workshops, which provide more opportunities for peer-to-peer (that is, participant-to-participant) feedback, the recommended experience level should be followed.

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

Why we do not record virtual events

In general, the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) does not record video or audio of creative writing workshops, professional development sessions, writers’ panels, or other virtual events that require prior registration. Several considerations inform this working policy:

  • Intellectual property: Writers who lead, present, or otherwise contribute to WFNS events should retain ownership of their intellectual property, including controlling how, when, and to whom their words and ideas are distributed.

  • Writer compensation & event fees: If writers are recorded for the purposes of distributing their words and ideas beyond the time and audience of a particular WFNS event, then they should be additionally and adequately compensated, as freely available recordings may impinge on their future opportunities for compensated contribution to non-WFNS events. Such additional compensation would increase the cost of WFNS events and, in turn, the registration fees for participants.

  • Privacy: Participants and other attendees of WFNS events should feel welcome to participate fully. They should not need to weigh the benefits of participation against any privacy concerns they may have.

  • Prior and informed consent: Obtaining the prior and informed consent of all participants is necessary to record an event in good faith. The process of seeking such consent on a large scale is both logistically and ethically challenging.

We make occasional exceptions to the above policy, particularly in cases where the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is partnering with another organization in the presentation of a virtual event. If the partner organization requests a recording, the event is conducted as a webinar, meaning general attendees are not recorded in any way. Consent is obtained from all webinar panelists (i.e., those writers who broadcast video and audio during the event).

Furthermore, a creative writing instructor may wish record their workshop for use in refining content and developing their teaching strategies. In this case, any recording will be viewed only by the instructor. The instructor must request, at least one week in advance of the event, that we seek the consent of all participants to be recorded. The event is not be recorded unless affirmative consent is given by all participants, and the identities of the participants who consent or do not consent is kept confidential.