Program Newsletter

Current and Upcoming Program News

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for their support of this year’s professional development programming, including monthly workshops, our two main festivals - WordSpring and WordsFall - and the newest addition to our PD portfolio the WordCraft podcast for writers, by writers.

WordCraft Season 1 is Live!

We have had tremendous response already for the first 3 episodes of WordCraft Season 1. Our first episode with Beth Powning was a beautiful conversation about writing and creativity in New Brunswick, while Leo LaFleur emphasized the importance of supportive people and a wide range of creative pursuits for both his writing and mental health, and Len Falkenstein showed us more about the world of the New Brunswick playwright and the culture of theatre in our province.

If you haven’t yet, please go subscribe and listen to these and the upcoming three episodes featuring Jen McGrath, Terry Armstrong, and Sue Sinclair. Don’t forget to leave a rating. It really helps to share these valuable conversations with other writers and readers.

Submit to InkSpot for Next Month

If you have news about community events, resources, member news, or opportunities - submit them to info@wfnb.ca.

Register for Upcoming Events

Upcoming Online Workshop

Register for the final segment of Frances Peck’s 3-workshop series, to be aired live in September.

WordsFall Festival in Sussex

Register for the whole weekend, or explore the events page to see what workshops you’d like to attend this year, in Sussex.

Community Events

Saint John

Partridge Island Publishing has partnered with CSG Publishing House, OC Publishing, Donovan Street Press, and Merlin Star Press to present Pitch the Publisher.

The Pitch the Publisher event will occur on Saturday, September 21, 2024 (Rain or Shine) from 1 pm – 3 pm in the Area 506 Community Space at 85 Water Street, Saint John, NB.

This no-fee event is open to all authors with completed, ready-to-submit manuscripts. The publishers are looking for completed manuscripts in genre fiction, literary fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and children’s books.

Each participant will have 5 minutes to pitch their story to the publishers, followed by a Question and Answer period. We have space for 12 participants, and if there is additional time at the end, we will accept additional participants on a first-come, first-served basis.

To register, email amanda@partridgeislandpublishing.ca with a synopsis of your manuscript, including genre, word count, comparable, story outline, and a sample of up to 10 pages of the story.

Each participant will receive an email prior to the event to give them their order in the line-up and the expected time they will present.

Fredericton

Fawn Parker will be hosting the August “Catch-Up” at Bookmark Fredericton. Come on out to Westminster Bookmark in Fredericton from 3-5pm on Sunday, August 18th, when this month’s poetry reading features Thandiwe McCarthy, Jennifer Houle, and our current Fredericton poet laureate Jordan Trethewey!

Fawn will also be teaching a poetry workshop at WordsFall in Sussex, October 25-27. Looking forward to that!

Community Resources

Sussex and Area Writers’ and Authors’ Group

Inaugural Meeting of the Sussex & Area Writers and Authors group will take place on Wednesday, September 11 from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm, at the Sussex Regional Library 46 Magnolia Ave. Sussex, NB

Free membership to anyone with an interest in writing, whether published or unpublished. It doesn’t matter if you write fiction, nonfiction, poetry, essays, short verse, epigrams or greeting card ideas or rhymes. No matter your genre or expertise, you are welcome to attend.

Please register by email, giving full name only: sussexwritersgroup@gmail.com

Or you can call 506-432-4585, or drop into the library in person to register.

Various events will be held throughout the year, such as public readings, author book signings, workshops, etc. Show up and have your questions answered.

Writers’ Retreat in Pugwash

Writers' Retreat at Thinkers Lodge in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, October 4 - 6, 2024 with facilitator, Marjorie Simmins.

Please join us for a two-day writers' retreat at Thinkers Lodge in beautiful Pugwash, Nova Scotia! For two days and nights, stay at a National Historic Site on the shores of the spectacular Northumberland Strait. 

Marjorie Simmins is an award-winning writer and the author of four non-fiction titles. She has taught writing workshops across Canada and via Zoom. She is "all about the story," and helping you to find yours.

Bring your ideas for a memoir, your manuscript in progress, your short or long-form creative non-fiction, bring your determination to create beauty with words, and enjoy two full days of quiet and focus. In between those times, you'll meet for mini-workshops, one-on-one discussions with the facilitator, and sharings of collective wisdom. Space is limited to 10. Please book early to secure your seat.

Info: mls@marjoriesimmins.ca

Call for applications

ArtsLink NB's Catapult program

Application deadline: Sun, August 25, 11:59 pm

The Fall 2024 session will be a hybrid of online sessions and in-person meetings in Moncton, NB. The program will run every Saturday from September 7 to December 7.

Over a 12-week period, CATAPULT participants receive training in fundamental entrepreneurial skills like business modelling, marketing, branding, financial planning, and exporting. Guest speakers and facilitators for the CATAPULT workshops are drawn both from the business and professional art community.

Participants also receive one-on-one coaching from the program coordinator and formal mentorships from individuals operating at the top of their field. See the CATAPULT website for full details.

Feedback on genre fiction stories and novel excerpts

Sunspot Lit offers feedback on genre fiction stories and novel excerpts. Option to submit up to 5,000 words or up to 12,500 words. Submissions are capped, so submit early online.

The McNally Robinson Booksellers & Prairie Fire Writing Contests are on now until November 30th. $3750 in cash prizes to be won with one cash prize of $1250 in each category! This year’s judges are Bola Opaleke (Poetry), Lauren Carter (Fiction) and Jenny Heijun Wills (Creative Non-Fiction). Contest fee: $34 (comes with a 1-year subscription to Prairie Fire). For more information on how to enter, please see website for details.

Workers of the Warming World Unite! Poetry Anthology

Deadline: October 31, 2024

Has your job, workplace, industry, or livelihood been affected by changing environmental conditions? We are seeking submissions of poems about work in the age of global warming that are:

• insider poems by working people who are doing or have done the work they write about
• poems about all kinds of work, including the trades, online work, unpaid labour, customer service, care work, medical work and healthcare, migrant and precarious labour, traditional and subsistence labour, agriculture, the gig economy, internships and student labour, and more
• poems by workers from underrepresented groups—especially Indigenous, racialized, migrant, 2SLGBTQ+, disabled, Elders and elderly, women, and non-binary workers
• poems written in any style or form. We welcome writing from new or previously unpublished poets

Please submit up to 3 previously unpublished poems to workandclimatepoetry@gmail.com by October 31, 2024. Visit the website for more information including upcoming writing workshops.

Geist is accepting submissions for upcoming issues

Calling all writers and artists, Geist is accepting submissions! They're reading non-fiction, fiction, poetry and comics for our upcoming issues. Deadline is August 26, 2024.

The Fiddlehead's 2024 Fiction Contest is now open for submissions! 

The Fiddlehead invites authors, emerging and established, to send us their best piece of writing by September 2, 2024, to be considered by acclaimed author and judge Zilla Jones. Don't miss your chance to win $2000 and be published in our winter 2025 issue! 

See the full guidelines online.

Submit your Short Story to Tidewater Press

Tidewater Press is inviting submissions for a new short story anthology

Inspired by the Trans Canada Trail, the collection will feature one story from each of the provinces and territories. Not a travelogue, we are looking for original, creative tales, in any genre or style, with the linking theme of place: waterways, trails, roads and communities along the Trans Canada Trail. All authors will receive a standard contributor’s fee for first publication rights only. Deadline for submissions is September 30, 2024. Stories (2,000—8,000 words) to  may be sent via the Tidewater Press website, or to info@tidewaterpress.ca

Submit Proposals for Critical and Creative Presentations

Organizers of the tenth Mennonite/s Writing conference invite proposals for critical and creative presentations on any aspect of Mennonite literature, including the 2024 conference theme of "Words at Work and Play."

In keeping with the field's long-standing practice of working across creative and critical boundaries, we invite proposals for scholarly presentations as well as creative and genre-bending work from across and beyond the academy, including: work in any literary genre or medium; audio and visual arts; theatre and film; historical writing; social critique; theological reflection; religious studies; anthropology; community-engaged research; race, ethnicity, and gender studies; ecocriticism; reconciliation and Indigeneity; postcolonial writing; autotheory; ethics; digital humanities; comedy; publishing, printing, & editing; podcasting; translation; and even literary criticism. We especially encourage submissions that will broaden and enrich the field's historical, geographical, methodological, and disciplinary range.

Please send proposals as 250-word abstracts (with short contributor biographies) to mennowritingx@cmu.ca by November 1, 2024. More details will be available soon at the conference webpage.

Prairie Fire Writing Contest

The McNally Robinson Booksellers and Prairie Fire Writing Contests are accepting submissions for three categories:

• The MRB Poetry Contest
  
• The MRB Short Fiction Contest, and
• The MRB Creative Non-Fiction Contest

The contest deadline is November 30, 2024, with an entry fee of $34 per entry. Complete guidelines can be found on the Prairie Fire website.

That’s all for this month!

With Rhonda away on vacation and some unexpected family emergencies on my part, I want to thank you for your patience in receiving InkSpot later than usual this month. We’re looking forward to the next month’s programming, and even more exciting plans in the future!

Happy last days of Summer,

Kris