RAISE OUR VOICES Youth Mentorship Program
The Cabot Trail Writers Festival is SO excited to help foster the next generation of writers on our island with our new youth mentorship program. You can read on below to learn more about the program, or click the button below to submit an application between October 1 and November 30, 2025.
About the program….
WHAT IS IT?
There are four parts to the Raise Our Voices (ROV) program:
• ROVing Writers Contest
A chance for any Cape Breton writer between ages 12 and 18 to share your work and writing aspirations with our contest jury, who will then select one applicant for the ROVing Writers Mentorship, while all other applicants will be eligible to join ROVing Writers Online and take part in the ROVing Writers Coffeehouse.
• ROVing Writers Mentorship
The winner of the ROVing Writers Contest will have the chance to take part in a three-month mentorship with a professional Cape Breton writer, meeting on-line twice a month for an hour each time, through the winter, to share work, develop a project, get feedback and advice, explore writing exercises or pursue whatever will be most useful and most inspiring for you right now in your writing journey.
• ROVing Writers Online
Everyone who submitted an application to the ROVing Writers Contest is invited to take part in a monthly online session, running from February through April, where a professional Cape Breton writer will host free-ranging Zoom chats with participants about writing aspirations, the publishing process, creative exercises for getting past writers’ block or getting your ideas out of your imagination and onto the page, or whatever else is most exciting and important to the participants, with guest appearances from professional writers.
•ROVing Writers Coffeehouse
In spring, we’ll host an in-person coffeehouse event, open to the public, with the ROVing Writers Online invited to share their work at an open mic and the ROVing Writers Mentee participating in a reading and short interview with their mentor.
WHO CAN APPLY?
Any youth between 12 and 18 (as of December 31, 2025), currently residing in Cape Breton, can submit an application. You must be available to participate in bi-monthly meetups with your mentor through February, March and April 2026, and to take part in the in-person Coffeehouse event in May 2026.
HOW CAN I APPLY?
To apply, please click the button above (or CLICK HERE) and complete the application questions. In addition to providing basic personal information like your age and contact details, you’ll be asked to tell us a little about your writing background and interests and to submit a writing sample. Your writing sample can be poetry, short stories, or an excerpt from a novel or longer work of non-fiction, and should be no longer than 2,000 words.
WHAT IS THE DEADLINE?
Please submit your application by midnight Atlantic Time on November 30, 2025.
WHEN WILL I HEAR FROM YOU?
In January, we will notify applicants of whether they have been offered the 2026 ROVing Writers Youth Mentorship or are invited to take part in ROVing Writers Online.