Year of the Arts: Writers-in-Residence and Writers-In-Schools
(August 23, 2024) – We are so excited to announce our WritersNL Year of the Arts 2024 Writers:
(Read more about these phenomenal writers in their bios below!)Two Writers-in-Schools have been selected to present activities in school classrooms aimed at enhancing student enrichment and fostering an appreciation of the literary arts.
Sheilah Roberts Lukins
· Beachy Cove Elementary, Portugal Cove-St. Philips
· Bishop Abraham Elementary, St. John’sSabrina Pinksen
· St. Peter’s Academy, Westport
· Cape John Collegiate, Hillside Elementary, La Scie
· MSB Regional Academy, Middle Arm
· Copper Ridge Academy, Baie Verte
Four Writers-in-Residence have been selected to provide encouragement and advice to local writers and serve as literary ambassadors to the community through activities such as readings, workshops, and one-on-one consultations. The program is being offered in partnership with NL Public Libraries, which will host the guest writers.
Sharon Bala: AC Hunter Public Library, St. John’s
Trudy Morgan-Cole: CBS Public Library, CBS
Sara Tilley: Melville Public Library, Happy Valley-Goose Bay
Douglas Walbourne-Gough: Corner Brook Public Library, Corner Brook
The program will roll out mid-October and run for four weeks. Anyone seeking further information about an individual residency can contact the specific library or Writer-in-Residence at the emails below.
For general information about the WritersNL Year of the Arts initiative, email yota@writersnl.ca.
Writers-in-Schools:
Sabrina says: “I’m so looking forward to being in classrooms as one of the Writers-in-Schools for WritersNL’s 2024 Year of the Arts Programming and I hope to be able to provide to students a path toward the literary arts that recognizes their unique stories and positions as students in outport Newfoundland & Labrador.”
Sabrina Pinksen is a writer and painter from Wild Cove, White Bay. Her written and visual work operates to challenge the erasure of Newfoundland’s outport communities. In 2024, her first novel was awarded the Percy Janes First Novel Award and the NLCU Fresh Fish Award. Her work has appeared in Riddle Fence, Horse Shoe, and Newfoundland Quarterly. A recent grantee of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, Sabrina’s visual work has been supported by ArtsNL and collected by the City of St. John’s and The Rooms Provincial Art Bank. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph.
Sheilah Roberts Lukins says: “I am very excited to be going into the school system to work with all the budding young Newfoundland writers, revving up the imaginations of the primary and elementary grades and helping to polish the creative efforts of the more senior, high school students.”
Sheilah is a Newfoundland author of nonfiction adult books and children’s literature. Her Errol the Mouse series published by Breakwater Books includes: Full Speed Ahead: Errol’s Bell Island Adventure (2016), winner of the 2018 Bruneau Family Children’s/Young Adult Literature Award; Flying Ace: Errol’s Gander Adventure (2019) and Once Upon an Iceberg: Errol’s Twillingate Adventure (2021), shortlisted for the 2022 Bruneau Family Children’s/Young Adult Literature Award.
Her nonfiction books include: For Maids Who Brew and Bake (Flanker Press, 2003, 2012), shortlisted for the Cuisine Canada’s National Culinary Book Awards; Rain, Drizzle and Fog (Boulder Publications, 2014); and Bottoms Up: A History of Alcohol in Newfoundland and Labrador (Breakwater Books, 2020), shortlisted for the 2020 Gourmand, Best in the World Food & Drink.
Writers-In-Residence:
Sharon Bala says: “I’m looking forward to meeting the community, leading workshops, and writing together at the AC Hunter, my local library.” Sharon Bala’s best-selling debut novel, The Boat People, won the 2020 Newfoundland & Labrador Book Award and the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, was short-listed for several awards, and is in translation in four languages. She won the Writers’ Trust/ McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize in 2017. Her short fiction has been published in Best Canadian Stories 2024, The Journey Prize 29, Hazlitt, Grain, PRISM international, The New Quarterly, Maisonneuve, and elsewhere. Sharon is a member of The Port Authority, a St. John’s writing group. Visit her at: sharonbala.com.
Residency dates: October 22 to November 19
For more information about the AC Hunter Writer-in-Residence program, contact: achunterwir@gmail.com (Sharon Bala) or reference@nlpl.ca (AC Hunter Public Library)
Trudy Morgan-Cole says: “Libraries are the heart of our literary community, and I am so excited to have the opportunity to be a Writer-in-Residence at the Conception Bay South Public Library during the Year of the Arts.”
Trudy Morgan-Cole is a writer and educator living in St. John’s. She has written over 20 books, including seven historical novels set in Newfoundland. She is particularly interested in using historical fiction to re-imagine the lost and silenced voices of women in history. Her most recent work, the Cupids Trilogy (A Roll of the Bones, Such Miracles and Mischiefs, and A Company of Rogues) explores the experiences of the first English women to settle in Newfoundland.
Residency dates: October 10 to November 8
For more information about the CBS Writer-in-Residence program, contact:
tmorgancole@gmail.com (Trudy Morgan-Cole) or conceptionbaysouth@nlpl.ca (CBS Public Library)
Sara Tilley says: “I’m looking forward to working with writers of all genres and experience levels, and to becoming more immersed in the literary scene in Labrador. I can’t wait to read what you’re working on!”
Sara Tilley is a multidisciplinary artist whose work bridges writing, theatre, clown and puppetry. She considers herself a newcomer to Labrador since moving to Happy Valley-Goose Bay in the fall of 2023, although she spent two years of her early childhood in Nain. Sara has written two novels — Skin Room (Pedlar Press, 2008) and DUKE (Pedlar Press, 2015), winner of the Winterset Award. She’s written/co-written fifteen plays, including White or Red, which was recently shortlisted for the Atlantic Canadian Play Award. She’s been Writer-In-Residence at Memorial University, the University of Calgary, Berton House (Dawson City, Yukon), Landfall (Brigus, NL) and 2Rooms (Duntara, NL). Sara is currently writing a third novel.
Residency dates: October 7 to November 3
For more information about the Melville Public Library Writer-in-Residence program, contact: melvillelibrarywriter@gmail.com (Sara Tilley) or happyvalleygoosebay@nlpl.ca (Melville Public Library)
Douglas Walbourne-Gough says: “As a former staff member of the Corner Brook Public Library, this residency is a perfect fit. I look forward to engaging with the writing community here, at home, to potentially learn as much as I can offer.”
Douglas Walbourne-Gough is a poet and mixed/adopted status member of the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation from Elmastukwek (the Bay of Islands), Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). His first collection, Crow Gulch, was published with Goose Lane Editions in 2019, has been nominated for several awards, and won the 2021 EJ Pratt Poetry Award. His second collection, Island, centres around the Newfoundland Mi’kmaq experience in the wake of the Qalipu enrolment process and is forthcoming in Fall 2024, also from Goose Lane Editions. Colour Work, a chapbook of poetry, was published with Anstruther Press in January 2024. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing (UBC Okanagan) and a PhD in English/Creative Writing (UNB Fredericton).
Residency dates: October 21 to November 17
For more information about the Corner Brook Public Library Writer-in-Residence: elmastukwek@protonmail.com (Douglas Walbourne-Gough) or Cornerbrook@nlpl.ca (Corner Brook Public Library)
Questions? Concerns? Contact WritersNL at info@writersnl.ca