Fredericton, New Brunswick - July 30, 2021 - Emerging New Brunswick-based writer and poet Misha K. Nowicki has received the first Jane LeBlanc Storytelling Award.

The Jane LeBlanc Storytelling Award has a cash value of $800.

Misha now has the opportunity for mentorship and further education in her creative field.

Misha is a budding writer from Lower Queensbury and Fredericton, New Brunswick, where she resides today with her husband and daughter. Although her “official” journey as a writer only started a few months ago, she has always had words float through her heart, jotting down ideas and phrases over the years on the margins of school notebooks, the backs of napkins and receipts, and the block papers of conference writing pads.

Misha’s lifelong curiosity with language manifested because her real-time comprehension of it was deemed poor since she was little, and, as a result, she has had to apply a more concerted effort than the average person to understand words and their meanings. Approaching language as a puzzle led Misha to work in the policy research and records management fields after graduating from Saint Thomas University, where she could explore at a more significant level the how and why of things.

This past spring, Misha was diagnosed as autistic and with ADHD.

These revelations enabled Misha to cease questioning her perceived inability to understand and instead embrace the value of her process of uncovering the why behind words and the how of communication. This approach is how Misha explores self-expression and inquiry through writing. She is currently focused on writing poetry, although she also writes fiction and non-fiction prose.

Misha is ecstatic to be the recipient of the inaugural Storytelling Award through the Jane LeBlanc Legacy Fund. To have her use of words and methods of expression recognized by accomplished writers is a deeply validating encouragement, and she is thrilled to pursue developing her writing in formal settings of creative writing courses and workshops.

Misha hopes to publish her first collection of poetry in the next year.

About The Jane LeBlanc Legacy Fund

The Jane LeBlanc Legacy Fund was created in memory of Miramichi, born Jane LeBlanc. The fund is in place to assist emerging New Brunswick resident creatives. Jane lived life to the fullest and courageously took action in making her dreams a reality. She died of brain cancer in 2010.

Sponsors and Supporters for the Storytelling Award: Cat LeBlanc Music, Montelibretti Pictures, Cathy Goodfellow, Atlantic Mediaworks, Jan Miller, Louise Lalonde, Jeremy Thomas Gilmer, Julie Scriver, Akoulina Connell, Roger Moore, and the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick.