Make the Dead Come to Life: Nonfiction Research (virtual) with Jon Tattrie

Many of Jon Tattrie’s nine published books involve history and bring him to the familiar challenge of making the past burst off the page and enter the reader’s present. From the Halifax Explosion to Peace by Chocolate, Jon will share his best methods for giving readers such a vivid encounter with the past that they’ll swear they lived through it.

  • Letters and documents
    How do you find historical documents or contemporary letters, and how do you turn those dusty pages into lively prose? We’ll look at some case studies from Jon’s own files and get to work.
  • Photos and film
    A picture is worth 1,000 words, and you can usually get 1,200 from a video. They contain a wealth of information you can spend to put your reader in your protagonists’s shoes. We’ll learn how.
  • Social and other media
    Newspapers and social media can give you access to how people felt as things unfolded, uninfluenced by how things ended. We’ll learn how to do that so it doesn’t feel like doomscrolling. Or joyscrolling.
  • Interviews and road trips
    If it’s the living past, you can interview the people involved directly. Ask them what happened. Ask them how they felt and what they were thinking. Ask them what they wore and what they ate. And then, ask them to take a road trip with you (real or virtual) that will give you the raw materials to turn into a gripping account.

About the instructor: Jon Tattrie operates Write Now! with Jon Tattrie, a book-birthing business in Nova Scotia. He is the author of nine books, ranging from the founding of Halifax in the 1750s (Cornwallis: The Violent Birth of Halifax) to the founding of Peace By Chocolate in the 2010s (Peace by Chocolate). His other books include The Hermit of Africville and Redemption Songs. His next book is the forthcoming biography I Leave A Warrior Behind: The Life and Stories of Charles R. Saunders. He has interviewed thousands of people in his 20-year journalism career. He holds a Master’s of Fine Arts from the University of King’s College. He has taught writing for decades, including at Dalhousie University and the University of King’s College.

Photo by Giselle Melanson Tattrie

Recommended experience level: New, emerging, and early-career nonfiction writers (About recommended experience levels)

Participant cap: 12

Location: Zoom

Dates of 4-week workshop: Tuesdays, Feb 4 + Feb 11 + Feb 18 + Feb 25, 2025 (7:00pm to 9:00pm Atlantic)

Registration for 2025 General Members: $169

Registration for non-members: $234 (includes 2025 General Membership in WFNS)

Registration for this workshop is closed.

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Simultaneous Submissions

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) administers some programs (and special projects) that involve print and/or digital publication of ‘selected’ or ‘winning’ entries. In most cases, writing submitted to these programs and projects must not be previously published and must not be simultaneously under consideration for publication by another organization. Why? Because our assessment and selection processes depends on all submitted writing being available for first publication. If writing selected for publication by WFNS has already been published or is published by another organization firstcopyright issues will likely make it impossible for WFNS to (re-)publish that writing.

When simultaneous submissions to a WFNS program are not permitted, it means the following:

  • You may not submit writing that has been accepted for future publication by another organization.
  • You may not submit writing that is currently being considered for publication by another organization—or for another prize that includes publication.
  • The writing submitted to WFNS may not be submitted for publication to another organization until the WFNS program results are communicated. Results will be communicated directly to you by email and often also through the public announcement of a shortlist or list of winners. Once your writing is no longer being considered for the WFNS program, you are free to submit it elsewhere.
    • If you wish to submit your entry elsewhere before WFNS program results have been announced, you must first contact WFNS to withdraw your entry. Any entry fee cannot be refunded.

Prohibitions on simultaneous submission do not apply to multiple WFNS programs. You are always permitted to submit the same unpublished writing to multiple WFNS programs (and special projects) at the same time, such as the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program, the Emerging Writers Prizes, the Jampolis Cottage Residency Program, the Message on a Bottle contest, the Nova Writes Competition, and any WFNS projects involving one-time or recurring special publications.

Recommended Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) recommends that participants in any given workshop 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. The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the following definitions used by WFNS.

  • 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, and writing for children and young adults) 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.

For “intensive” and “masterclass” creative writing 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