A Writer's Guide to Halifax

The main branch of Halifax Public Libraries has a Local History Room with research material on Halifax, Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada. You can book study and community rooms, or one of two sound-resistant studios for recording a podcast. Readings and community events fill the 300-seat Paul O'Regan Hall. It is open daily.

Downtown Dartmouth's branch has study rooms, along with community rooms you can book. It also has public computers and printing. Open daily.

Dalhousie describes Killam as its largest library and the largest academic library in the Maritimes, with about a million books and 40,000 journals across the arts and sciences. Study rooms are booked online.

The reading room on Killam's fifth floor welcomes visiting researchers and the general public. Request materials by 4:00 p.m. on weekdays. Audiovisual and born-digital archives need advance notice, and researchers doing extended work can keep materials on reserve.

The provincial archive keeps 300 years of records from government and the private sector, at the corner of University Avenue and Robie Street. Register at the first-floor desk for a researcher's card. Bags go in lockers. Laptops can come upstairs. It stays open late on Wednesdays, opens on Saturdays and closes Sundays.

Trident sells new and used books at the south end of Hollis Street, alongside craft-roasted coffee and loose teas. Its calendar has book launches and readings, plus music in the evenings. Open daily.

Open Book is a café and full-service bookshop for Atlantic Canadian books, at the same address as Nimbus Publishing. Its calendar has book launches, author talks and coffeehouse concerts.

Bookmark is an independent general bookstore on Spring Garden Road. Look for the local-authors section. Authors from Halifax and well beyond come in for events.

Schooner sells rare and used books from a Victorian house in the South End. Atlantic history and literature are strong here, and its catalogue also covers Canadian literature, nautical books, historic documents and vintage photographs.

Doull lists more than 60,000 second-hand and antiquarian titles online and keeps about 100,000 more in the shop. It calls its Atlantic Provinces and Nautical & Marine collections the largest in Canada, and its literature holdings the largest in Atlantic Canada.

Egghead opened in the North End in 2025. It stocks every genre, and fiction is its focus. There is a monthly reading club.

Strange Adventures has sold comics and graphic novels since 1992, with a sister store in Dartmouth at 101 Portland St. Writers of comics and graphic novels can study the shelves here, and the shop hosts author signings.

Woozles has sold children's books since 1978 and calls itself Canada's oldest children's bookstore. Picture-book and young-adult writers can see what is on the shelf now. It also runs a book club and community workshops.

Fourteen study pods on floors 2 to 4 have seating for studying or a small meeting. There is café service on floors 1 and 5, and coffee can go out to the rooftop patio. The library is open daily, with evening hours Monday to Thursday.

Java Blend has roasted coffee in Nova Scotia since 1938 and calls itself one of Canada's oldest coffee roasters. Its North Street café opens daily from early morning. Downtown, a weekday-only counter at 5146 Sackville Street serves the same coffee.

Steve-O-Reno's has brewed coffee and baked on site in downtown Halifax since 1996. After its Brunswick Street days it moved to Doyle Street, around the corner from Central Library. Open daily.

The Carleton serves dinner and brunch on Argyle Street, and its calendar runs from musicians to comedians. It opens only when an event is scheduled, so look at the calendar first.

The Old Triangle serves Irish and Maritime dishes and books live music on many evenings. Its Seanchaí Room holds 72 people and has its own bar and stage. Strange Adventures is a few doors down. Open daily.

Bearly's is a blues bar on Grafton Street with a food menu, and it advertises live entertainment 364 days a year.

WFNS is the province's writers' organization, and much of its programming runs peer to peer. Its Manuscript Review Program gives feedback on unpublished work. It also runs creative writing workshops and Jampolis Cottage residencies, and its Literary Services Directory lists editors and other paid services.

Off the Page is WFNS's free monthly reading series in spring and fall. Four to six emerging writers who have not yet published a book read works in progress at each event, and an established local author headlines the last night of the season. Readers are chosen by application.

AfterWords has held a November festival at venues around Halifax since 2019. Between festivals it runs a Winter Writing Weekend, Spring ForeWord, an annual Book Crawl and a youth mentorship program.

The School of Writing and Publishing at King's offers non-credit courses on Zoom to writers at any stage, in fiction and memoir among other subjects. Classes are capped at 14. There are no grades.

The Halifax Art Book Fair is a free annual fair and conference for art publishers and readers. It centres on Atlantic artists' books, catalogues, periodicals and zines.

The institute at Mount Saint Vincent works toward equity through feminist research and community initiatives on women, gender and social justice. It runs the Atlantis conference, and essays by past holders of the Nancy's Chair in Women's Studies can be read online. Anyone can join its free network to hear about events and research opportunities.

Nimbus describes itself as the largest English-language publisher east of Toronto. Its list covers Atlantic Canadian history and heritage, memoir, children's books and regional reference, and its Vagrant Press imprint publishes fiction and poetry. Open Book Coffee is at the same address.

Formac publishes adult and children's books on Maritime regional interest, Canadian and military history, biography and memoir, and the social sciences. It publishes Indigenous and African Canadian authors.

Fernwood publishes critical books on social justice, from Indigenous studies and decolonization to labour, climate, gender and race. Roseway is its literary imprint. It has offices in Halifax and Winnipeg.

This open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the University of Alberta's International Institute for Qualitative Methodology publishes work on qualitative and mixed methods research, including methods papers and study protocols. Its editor-in-chief is at Dalhousie University. Preparing an article for International Journal of Qualitative Methods

Arts Nova Scotia funds professional, practicing artists who live in the province, literary artists among them. Its streams cover creating new work, presenting your own work and professional development, and you can apply alone or as a duo.

The program pairs professional authors with emerging Nova Scotia writers who are close to publishing a book-length work, for sixteen weeks of one-on-one manuscript mentoring. Apprentices read in public at WFNS's Celebration of Emerging Writers in Halifax. Scholarships are available.

WFNS administers two Nova Scotia awards, the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award and the Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award. It also runs three Atlantic awards, including the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award.

The non-profit Atlantic Book Awards Society holds an annual awards program and festival for Atlantic Canadian writing and publishing. Its awards include the Alistair MacLeod Award for Short Fiction and the Atlantic Independent Booksellers Readers' Choice Award.

The Portia White Prize recognizes a professional Nova Scotian artist in any medium for a sustained career. The recipient names a protégé, an emerging artist or cultural organization, who also receives an award. Nominations are required.

This page lists scholarships, writing prizes and campus writing resources at Dalhousie.

The same guide, for students at the Mount.

Saint Mary's students have a page of their own, with scholarships and writing prizes.

Inkwell's letterpress studio is home to two presses, one built around 1921 and a Vandercook from 1965. The shop takes custom letterpress orders for business cards, invitations, posters and art prints.

Formed in 2022, the group brings together local book-arts practitioners, from beginners to professionals, who work in bookbinding, papermaking, marbling and letterpress. Members have shown their artists' books at The Craig Gallery in Dartmouth. Writers looking for a local binder or letterpress printer can start here.