Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award (WFNS)

** Please note that this Award is presented biennially, and the next call for submissions will be in 2024.

Complete submission information for all five Awards administered by the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia is available here.

A $1,000 prize awarded for a book of poetry written or co-written by a full-time resident of Nova Scotia* that was published and/or distributed for the first time in Canada in the two years prior to and including the submission deadline. Because this award is biennial, each cycle of the award covers two publication years. For the 2023 award, the eligibility years run from November 2, 2020, to November 1, 2022.

* Full-time residents of Nova Scotia are those who have lived in Nova Scotia for at least two consecutive years immediately prior to the submission deadline date. A co-authored book is eligible if at least one co-author meets this residency requirement.

The Nova Scotia Poetry Award was established in 2020 through the efforts of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia and poets from across the province, who raised funds to biennially honour the best book of poetry by a Nova Scotia writer. In 2021, the prize was named for poet Maxine Tynes (1949 – 2011) and received additional support from the Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute, the Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union, the Province of Nova Scotia’s African Nova Scotian Affairs, and Dalhousie University’s Department of English. The greatest benefactor of the prize was Dr. Afua Cooper, who generously donated the protégé portion of her 2020 Portia White Prize.

To submit to this award and view past winners, please visit the WFNS webpage for this Award.

Submission Deadline For 2023 Awards: November 1, 2022