Summary

“It thrilled me to realize you could write about where you lived.” Ann Brennan 

Imagine a room filled with New Brunswick’s literary masters – teenage Sheree Fitch and David Adams Richards sitting alongside Alden Nowlan. Nancy Bauer takes us back to that reality in her living room, hosting Maritime Writers’ Workshops in the 1970s and paving the way for the creation of the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick in 1985. She’s joined by Ann Brennan and Allan Cooper, who both played a role in the WFNB’s founding and early days. The trio reflect on the creation and legacy of the WFNB with host Jenna Morton. “A sense of community began to grow … [the Federation] was the perfect vehicle to do what I believed in so strongly -- that we need our stories, our local stories, to be told.”

Links and Citations

Nancy Bauer

Ann Brennan

Allan Cooper

Rhonda Bulmer

A Great Cloud of Witnessing

The Real Klondike Kate

The Faery Chronicles

Mary Lund

Fred Cogswell

Alden Nowlan

Dorothy Livesay

Kent Thompson

John Thompson

Peter Thomas

Harry Thurston

New Brunswick Bibliography

Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia

Greg Cook

Richard Hatfield

ArtsNB

Jim Stewart

Michael Brian Oliver

Brian Bartlett

Bliss Carman

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Henry David Thoreau

Coleman Barks

Unsnarling String

Bill Bauer

Transcript

Tosh Taylor - The voices of New Brunswick writers are the heart of WordCraft, a podcast aimed at creating community through words. WordCraft is a creation of the Writers Federation of New Brunswick, a non-profit organization that helps New Brunswick writers to write, acquire skills, and showcase their talents to the world. The show is hosted and produced by Jenna Morton, with technical production by Tosh Taylor. The WFNB acknowledges that the land on which we live, work, and gather is the traditional unceded territory of the Woolastook and Mi'kmaq peoples. And we honor the spirit of our ancestors' treaties of peace and friendship.

Jenna Morton - Hello, and welcome to season 2 of WordCraft. My name is Jenna Morton, and I am honored to bring you conversations with writers from across the province on behalf of the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick. This year, 2025, marks the official 40th anniversary of the WFNB. To mark the occasion, we've invited some of the organization's founders to join us for a discussion filled with memories and history and hopes for the future. Our guests for this discussion are some of the founding members of the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick. And while they are, of course, all writers, they are also mentors, community builders, tireless champions for the creative arts in this province and beyond, and they are part of the history of this organization. Nancy Bauer has been at the heart of arts and literary culture in New Brunswick since moving to Fredericton in the 1960s. Her living room is one of legend among writers of a certain age, and one might say the birthplace of what became the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick. She's a celebrated writer with a long career in arts journalism. Her work includes five published novels, and a recently published collection of her newspaper columns entitled A Great Cloud of Witnessing. It's edited by Ian LeTourneau and published by Chapel Street Editions. Nancy is also a past honorary president of the Writers’ Federation. Ann Brennan is a well-known social activist, an entrepreneur, and an author. She's published several books, including a biography of The Real Klondike Kate, several poetry collections, and her Fairy Chronicle series. She's a founding member and past honorary president of the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick. And Allan Cooper is an award-winning poet and musician, a literary editor, and the first official president of the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick. His work includes more than a dozen published poetry collections, hundreds of workshops conducted throughout Canada and the United States, several translated works, and he's the founder of Owl's Head Press, a poetry publishing imprint based in Alma. I'd like to do some quick introductions and have everyone say hello. First, I'm going to introduce the current executive director for the Federation, Rhonda Bulmer. Hello and welcome.

Rhonda Bulmer - Hello, Jenna. Thank you for having me. This is exciting.

Jenna Morton - Well, thank you for wanting to continue the podcast and to want to start this season with a celebration of 40 years of the Federation. Before we get really into everything that happened before now, can you give a quick little snapshot of what the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick is right now in 2025?

Rhonda Bulmer - Well, right now in 2025, I would say the Writers’ Federation's slogan is creating community through words. And so everything that we do is designed to help writers across the province connect. So if it's workshops taught by really stellar writers in a given discipline, or if it's our two awards programs, which is the NB writing competition, and then the New Brunswick Book Awards, and whether it's our events like Wordspring and Words Fall and, you know, other ad hoc events, retreats, it's an opportunity for writers to gather, to share what they know, to connect, because writing is a solitary experience…that first bit is solitary, but then you share it and you get feedback and you just talk with other people. It's a tremendously rewarding experience, I think. And so that's what we're continuing to try to do and to have an impact in our small community. And I feel that it's a great privilege to be a part of it.

Jenna Morton - Thank you for that little snapshot of what the Federation is doing. And I think that sense of community and connection is something that's been at the core of this organization for 40 years now. And like I said, we have three of the founding members with us today. I'm going to just give you a little brief introduction of each of our guests. Nancy Bauer has been at the heart of arts and literary culture in New Brunswick since moving to Fredericton in the 1960s. Thank you for joining us on the podcast, Nancy.

Nancy Bauer - Well, thank you for having us.

Jenna Morton - Thank you. And along with you, we have Ann Brennan, who is well known as a social activist, an entrepreneur, an author. Welcome, Ann.

Ann Brennan - Thank you so much. It's my pleasure to be here and celebrate with you. Yeah.

Jenna Morton - Well, thank you. And rounding out our group today, we have Allan Cooper, who is an award-winning poet and musician, a literary editor, and the first official president of the Writers Federation of New Brunswick. Welcome, Allan.

Allan Cooper - Thank you for having me today. I'm glad to be here with two of my favorite women. We've known each other for quite a long time, and it's like a gathering and a celebration as well.

Jenna Morton - It does feel like we should all be in one room together, maybe in Nancy's living room, reimagining what things were like back in the early days. And I'd love to start the chat there, Nancy, if you could kind of paint a little picture. I alluded to that it's all kind of is said to have come about in your living room, and I'd love to know more about that.

Nancy Bauer - Yes, my living room has been kind of a wonderful place, actually. It just happened that way. There was a young woman who came to our writers’ group, and her husband was a professor of math, and she called herself a workshop junkie. And so she suggested we start the Maritime Writers’ Workshop, which we did. And there, various people from New Brunswick, but also really from all over Canada came. And they had such a great time, and it was a wonderful time, that they said, ‘Why can't we have some kind of thing like you have at the Ice House, McCord Hall, or at the Maritime Writers' Workshop? And at that time, we were the only province in Canada that didn't have a federation. And I, of course, as you can tell from my accent, that I haven't lost for 65 years. (You'd think I would, but anyway, I haven't.) I was kind of gung-ho. And I'm, I often wonder now, you know, how come this person who was just an immigrant wound up doing all this stuff? And I don't know why, but at any rate, we all met and of course, and a woman named Mary Jane Losier from Miramichi, a woman named, I think… Her name is escaping me. Her last name is Richard, who was Simpson, Valerie Simpson, in my living room. And we discussed this in my living room because I live in Fredericton, which, as you know, is the center of the universe. So of course, it had to be in my living room. But yes, and we discussed it and we discussed how we would do it. And in the meantime, we've all looked at other places, Nova Scotia and well, Saskatchewan was the first place to have such an organization. And one of the things we decided was that we would make it, we would make everybody eligible. Everybody would be welcome. Other places had done it differently and I've often wondered whether this was a mistake or not. Other places had like two tiers and you could have people who had published be part of it. But the upper tier and the people who ran everything were published authors. There were some real disadvantages of both.

Ann Brennan - Yes, I guess I'd go back to Nancy, maybe even a little bit further. For me, the beginning was really the Maritime Writers Workshops at UNB, that Nancy, I think, was instrumental in starting. And when, I mean, I'm sort of going from back to the front by saying, when Rhonda talks about ‘creating community through words,’ to me, as a writer that lived in rural New Brunswick, I was over the moon to think that they'd even let me go to a workshop in Fredericton. I was thrilled to death. Nancy and I could tell a few stories about some of the meetings that we had. And the fact that everybody was accepted, because since I was a child, I said, I'm going to be a writer. And I did a lot of other things before I got around to it, but I wrote forever. And I can remember my first trip to Fredericton to the writers, Maritime Writers’ Workshop, Nancy, and going with a little file folder. And I had, I think, 3 poems in it. And Fred Cogswell was so kind to me. I couldn't believe it. And then to sit in a workshop and to listen to Alden read his poems was like, you know, being with... the creator, honestly, because he was so well known by then. But not only that, I think the key was he was writing about where I lived, and he had written a poem about a bus stop in Bath, and nobody ever wrote about Bath, New Brunswick. And I was thrilled to know that you could write about where you lived. And out of those workshops, I forget how many I attended, the community began there. Sherry Fitch was just a young girl and David Adams Richard was a teenager, I think, maybe 20, I don't know. He came and I can remember, you know, being at that workshop. And I'm sure I went at least two or three different summers. And for me, that was my beginning. And then when the opportunity came to join the group, create the Federation, I was all for it because it was just to me, the vehicle to do what I believed in so strongly, which was that we need our stories told and we need our local stories told. And you have to believe in it. And the group like Nancy and her husband, they were all telling us we could do it. Yeah, it was exciting times. Yeah. Does that help?

Nancy Bauer - You're making me cry.