Celebration of Emerging Writers + Cider Launch & Social (Halifax)

Join us for this wonderful Wednesday double-header and double-launch as we celebrate 11 of Nova Scotia’s best emerging literary talents and hear from their winning works!

We’ll also be launching the inaugural Nova Writes Anthology and Island Folk Cider House’s new elderflower cider, Starfall Scrumping.

Cider, other beverages, and copies of the Nova Writes Anthology will be available for purchase by cash or card.

EVENT DETAILS

Cider Launch & Social
Start time: 6:00pm (doors 5:30pm)

Mix and mingle with fellow writers & readers, sample Starfall Scrumping cider, and hear the eponymous Message on a Bottle contest-winning poem: “Starfall Scrumping” by emerging writer Claire Morley.

Snacks will be provided, but you’re welcome to bring your own dinner!

Celebration of Emerging Writers
Start time: 6:30pm (doors 5:30pm)

2025 Nova Writes Competition winners:
C.C. Bligh (Joyce Barkhouse Middle-Grade & YA Fiction Prize)
Susie DeCoste (Rita Joe Poetry Prize)
Larry Hicks (Silver Donald Cameron Essay Prize)
Sophia Lindfield (Budge Wilson Short Story Prize)

2025 Emerging Writers Prizes recipients:
Jaime Jacques (Elizabeth Venart Prize)
Nailah Tataa (Charles R. Saunders Prize)
Natasha Thomas (Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize)

2025 Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program graduates:
Melissa Goertzen (nonfiction essays)
Roberta McGinn (science fiction)
Jennifer Stewart (literary fiction)