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YOUTH MENTORSHIP PROGRAM

Basic Details:

Applications open: September 5, 2025

Deadline to apply: November 24, 5pm AT

Mentorship period: March-April 2026

For young writers on mainland Nova Scotia between the ages of 14 and 18.

About the Youth Mentorship Program

 

AfterWords’ third annual Youth Mentorship Program will pair three professional writers with three mainland Nova Scotian writers between the ages of 14 and 18 inclusive, for a six-week virtual mentorship in March and April 2026. One of the three youth mentorship spots will be reserved for a Black or Indigenous Nova Scotian and another spot will be reserved for Halifax’s youth poet laureate.

Each mentor will meet with their mentee online for six one-hour sessions, following a schedule devised and agreed upon by mentor and mentee, beginning by March 1, 2026 and finishing by April 30, 2026. Mentors will also be available for up to six extra hours for reviewing their mentee’s work and offering encouragement and critical feedback, following parameters arrived at and agreed upon by mentor and mentee. In addition to reviewing and providing feedback on mentee’s written work, mentors may also provide guidance and advice about career development and next steps.

All applicants to the program receive two free virtual writing workshop. Additionally, the three mentees will be invited to give a short reading alongside their mentors at an AfterWords event with reading fee, travel and accommodations fully covered.

Application Deadline: November 24, 5pm AT

2026 Mentors: We are very excited to have francesca ekwuyasi and K.R. Byggdin as our mentors for our third annual program! ​

francesca ekwuyasi is a writer, artist, and filmmaker born in Lagos, Nigeria. Her work explores themes of faith, family, queerness, consumption, loneliness, and belonging. Her writing has been published in Winter Tangerine Review, Brittle Paper, Transition Magazine, the Malahat Review, Visual Art News, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and GUTS magazine. Her story “Orun is Heaven” was longlisted for the 2019 Journey Prize. Butter Honey Pig Bread is her first novel; it won the Writers’ Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers; was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and a Lambda Literary Award, and was longlisted for the Giller Prize. In 2021, Butter Honey Pig Bread was named runner-up in CBC’s Canada Reads competition.​

K.R. Byggdin is the author of Wonder World (Enfield & Wizenty 2022), a ReLit Award finalist and winner of the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. They hold degrees in writing from Dalhousie University (BA 2022) and the University of Guelph (MFA 2025) and their short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada, the UK, and New Zealand. Born and raised on the Prairies, they now call Kjipuktuk (Halifax) home. 

Eligibility and Application Guidelines

Eligibility Criteria

To be considered for the AfterWords Youth Mentorship Program, writers must meet the following criteria.

  • You must be a permanent resident of Nova Scotia (i.e., you have lived in Nova Scotia permanently for at least one year), and you must reside on mainland Nova Scotia during the 2025-26 school year. 

  • You must between the ages of 14 and 18 inclusive on December 31, 2025.

  • You must be available to participate in the program’s six virtual one-hour meetings (conducted by video chat in March and April), as well as the program’s wrap-up event, an in-person public reading in late April or early May, 2026 (where mentees and mentors will read from their work).

Application

In order to apply, you must fill out the form listed at the bottom of this page. The form will ask for the following information: your first and last name, your address, and your age. It will also ask you for the following:

  • Self-identification: We encourage you to briefly self-identify (recommended: one or two lines) if you belong to any communities that are marginalized on the basis of race or ethnicity, gender or sexuality, or ability or disability. AfterWords reserves one mentorship each year for Black and Indigenous Nova Scotians. Your willingness to self-identify can help us offer mentorships in a more equitable way. We will not share the details of your self-identification beyond the small group of three adjudicators (the mentors) plus two festival staff. 

  • Letter of Intent: Your letter of intent can be up to 500 words telling us a bit about you and your writing. It should answer each of the following questions (but need not be limited to them):

    • Why do you write? Why is writing important to you?

    • How long have you been writing?

    • How would you describe your relationship with writing at this point in your life?

    • What is motivating you to put time and energy into becoming a better writer?

    • What would you most like to learn from working with a professional writer?

  • Writing Sample: a sample of a work-in-progress of up to 2000 words (for prose) and up to 6 pages (for poetry). (Please double-space for prose, single-space for poetry, and use 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial font). 

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Application Form: You can fill out the application form here. Please be sure to apply on or before the application deadline of Friday, November 24, 5pm AT.

Assessment Process

After applications have been processed to ensure they are complete and eligible, they will be shared with a peer assessment jury of three professional writers contracted by AfterWords.

All applicants will be notified of their application results by mid-January.