Hello, Members and Friends. Here we are, at the end of 2025, and I’m a little shocked at how quickly the year flew by - probably because we enjoyed several quality events this year, and I received lots of positive feedback from participants. I hope that 2026 will be just as good, or better. If you have suggestions for next year’s slate of events, please send them along.
Congratulations to all of you who published work this year – books, poetry, short stories, essays, music, etc. I hope you can continue to build on these experiences in the coming year.
Thank you to all of you who volunteered at events like WordSpring, and various workshops, etc. Volunteers offer so much more than just an extra set of hands – they offer community, camaraderie, and wide variety of perspectives.
Thank you to our board members, both new and experienced, who have been faithful to offer encouragement and good ideas. (We have a great board, members!)
Thank you to our enthusiastic event and award sponsors of 2025: WordSpring, the NB Book Awards, the NB Writing Competition and our general sponsors. Your generosity and helpfulness make all of our events possible, and we couldn’t produce them without you.
Thank you, writers, for participating in our events. Thank you for gathering with other writers in our community, sharing your work, your ideas, and your knowledge. You did these things with enthusiasm, and genuine appreciation for the talents of others.
What’s Up Next?
NB Book Awards
Submitted books for the year 2025 are off to the judges this week, and they should render their results by late March. The shortlisted authors will be announced by news release on social media shortly thereafter. The NB Book Awards live event will take place on Saturday, May 30, 2026, at Lily Lake Pavilion in Saint John. FYI: Glass Roots, the Saint John company from whom we purchase our trophies, is developing a design that will be unique to the book awards going forward – we are excited to see it!
The 2026 NB Writing Competition begins January 1 and runs until March 31. The new judges are featured on the category pages of our website, and the “pay now” buttons on each page will open January 1. Get your submissions ready! One new development: Previously, we allowed WFNB members who live outside the province to participate in the JL Screenwriting Category, like they do in all other categories, but at the request of the sponsor, only New Brunswick residents will be able to participate in the JL Screenwriting Award going forward.
Monthly workshops – Please sign up for our monthly online workshops in January, February and March with Heather Browne, Elaine McCluskey, Sandra Phinney and Wendy Kitts. Lots of good, inspiring information!
Winter Retreat – Join us at Villa Madonna in February. Snuggle in and write for the weekend during this economical and useful event. Lots of great conversation over meals!
In the meantime, the WFNB extends its best wishes to you for a Merry Christmas, and a peaceful Holiday Season.
Cheers,
Rhonda
WordWorthy
“I think this is what poetry is all about - novelists get these big, sort of tableaus and stories in their mind, but we get little bits and pieces of things. And it's by putting together these little bits and pieces, we poets, that we create something new.” Michael Pacey, in conversation with Jenna Morton, WordCraft Episode 6, Season 2.
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Best wishes of the season, one and all. Just a reminder that books make great gifts, so whether or not you sent your ISBNs to the North Pole, I hope your titles fly off the shelves. Second, I want to thank one of our own directors, Ana Larade, for emceeing a successful Open Mic in Moncton last month. Hopefully this will become a recurring event. If you'd like us to bring this kind of energy to a venue near you, give us a shout to discuss. May 2026 bring us all the peace and prosperity we've earned.
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
Linda Bullock (pen name Faye Munn) writes fiction and romance from her home in Miramichi. Check out her website at www.shortreads.ca Welcome, Linda!
Christina Foster writes for children, and other genres including comedy, creative nonfiction, fiction, playwriting, poetry, and short stories from her home in Fredericton. Welcome, Christina!
Sharon Fournier writes a wide variety of genres, including creative nonfiction, essays, fiction, historical fiction, memoir, nonfiction, photography, poetry, YA, flash/micro fiction and short stories. Welcome, Sharon!
Dawn Henwood (clarityconnect.ca) is a professional technical writer from Moncton who has published two books on technical and business communication: A Writing Guide for IT Professionals (Oxford University Press) and Business Writing for Innovators and Change-Makers (Business Expert Press). Welcome, Dawn!
Maria Rogers (pen name Ria Rogers) is an aspiring children’s writer from Ottawa. Welcome, Maria!
David White joins us from Gatineau, Quebec and explores the world of writing through the genres of essays, fiction, historical fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Welcome, David!
MEMBER NEWS
Thomas Chamberlain, author, and Galleon Press are pleased to announce the publication of Happenstance. The novel was awarded second place in the 2024 WFNB writing competition in the David Adams Richards category for unpublished fiction. It is available at The Write Cup Bookstore Café in Saint John, PharmaChoice Rothesay, Midtown Grocery in Plaster Rock, from Galleon Books as well as from the author. www.thomas-chamberlain.com - www.galleonbooks.ca - www.amazon.com - www.amazon.ca
Launches and Signing Events
- December 13: Book Signing at PharmaChoice Rothesay from 9-2pm
- December 16: The Write Cup Bookstore Café @7pm
- December 17: Kennebecasis High School Theatre @ 4pm
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Kathy Mac has two reviews forthcoming: one of recent books by Keagan Hawthorne, Corey Lavendar and Douglas Walbourne Gough, which was accepted by The Dalhousie Review; and another review of recent books by Annick MacAskill, Bren Simmers and Bonnie Baird was accepted by ARC Poetry Magazine. She also had single poems published recent issues of The Dalhousie Review and QWERTY.
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Michael Simon is excited to announce that Book Two of his Extinction series, Emergence (Podium Entertainment), will be released on December 9, 2025. Thanks to the great team at Podium and my agent, Michelle Hauck, at Storm Literary Agency. - The last humans in the solar system battle for survival―and encounter an alien AI―in this action-packed military science-fiction thriller.
https://www.amazon.ca/Emergence-Military-Thriller-Michael-Simon/dp/1039475698?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB
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WFNB member Valerie LeBlanc (https://val.basicbruegel.ca/) wants your old dictionaries for an art project planned in the New Year. Valerie is getting ready to create a series of video performances in which she’ll be using dictionaries. If you have any at home that you no longer use, Valerie would be happy to collect them for the project. The dictionaries cannot be returned, as they will be taken apart during the performances. You can message Valerie at mediapackboard@gmail.com to arrange a time for her to pick them up (in the Moncton area) or, if that’s not possible, to drop them off at the Writers’ Federation office.
Thank you for considering this chance to put your paper dictionary to work again.
PAID SERVICES
Give the Gift of Story Feedback - What to give that writer on your list? The gift of feedback. Sunspot’s Angel Leya, USA Today bestselling coauthor, provides feedback on stories and novel excerpts. Guidelines available here: https://sunspotlit.submittable.com/submit/311607/genre-fiction-feedback-2025.
AWARDS PROGRAMS
The National Media Awards Foundation is pleased to announce that submissions are now open for the 49th annual National Magazine Awards. The 2026 NMAs feature 28 competitive categories, along with special awards, and additional categories aligned with our cross-program initiative with the Digital Publishing Awards.
COMPETITIONS AND CALLS FOR SUBMISSION
TWUC Invites Submissions for Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers
The Writers’ Union of Canada invites submissions to its 33rd annual Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers. Unpublished works of fiction and nonfiction up to 2,500 words in English are eligible, and writers may submit multiple entries. A $2,500 prize will be awarded to the winner, and the entries of the winner and eleven finalists will be submitted to three Canadian magazines for consideration. The deadline for entries is February 16, 2026.
Visit writersunion.ca/short-prose-competition for full details and application form.
