Workshops, Sessions, and Panels

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 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, we are able to provide a full refund of registration fees provided that you give at least one week’s notice prior to the start date of the workshop/session. For a cancellation made within one week of the start date of the workshop/session, we are able to provide an 80% refund of fees. For a cancellation made on or after the start date of the workshop/session, we are unable to provide a refund in any amount.

Workshop/session cancellation by WFNS

Insufficient Enrollment: Should a workshop/session be cancelled as a result of insufficient enrollment, students will be notified immediately and registration fees will be reimbursed in full within two weeks.

Class Postponement: Should a workshop/session be postponed due to inclement weather, students 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.

The WFNS does not record video or audio of creative writing workshops, professional development sessions, writers’ panels, or other virtual events. 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 logistically and ethically challenging.

Instructors/presenters may wish record their workshops/sessions for use in further refining workshop/session content and developing their teaching strategies. In such a case, the recording will be viewed only by the instructors/presenters. Should an instructor/presenter wish to record an event for this purpose, they must request, at least one week in advance of the event, that WFNS seek the consent of all participants to be recorded. The event will not be recorded unless consent is given by all participants prior to the beginning of the event, and the identities of the participants who consent or do not consent will be kept confidential.