About Wordfest
Wordfest's Mission & Mandate
Wordfest™ beams out from Calgary, Alberta in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, Treaty 7 territory. We are an entrepreneurial arts non-profit founded in 1996 as one of Canada’s leading literary festivals. Our goal? To help audiences of all ages think bigger, dig deeper, and build meaningful relationships with the world’s most compelling authors (prioritizing Canadian talent). Whether you love fiction or non-fiction, memoir or mysteries, food culture or pop culture, politics or poetry, major prize winners or breakout stars, a Wordfest show is the exclamation between the book being written and the book being read.
Our small team’s mission has evolved to include producing lively, accessible shows year-round, in addition to the fall Imaginairium (Canada’s Liveliest Literary Festival). Our unique (and free) Wordfest Youth program focuses on Grades 5 to 12 to fuel teen literacy, providing interactive experiences and class sets of books to thousands of students every year. We also produce Imagine On Air Audio to make our programming even more accessible.
Moving forward, Wordfest will continue to excel as the key catalyst for reader engagement in Calgary and Alberta, while helping to increase the national and international profile of Canadian authors and books.
History & Evolution of Wordfest
Wordfest was established in 1996 by committed community partners including The Banff Centre, Calgary Public Library, Mount Royal University, and The Writers’ Guild of Alberta, and incorporated in 1997 as a not-for-profit organization and annual festival. Since its inception, Wordfest has striven to increase and enhance awareness of the most compelling Canadian authors, as well as international authors, through accessible events designed to engage diverse audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
In 2017, a key strategic partnership was formed with Calgary Public Library to transform the second floor of Memorial Park Library (the oldest library in Alberta) into a vibrant arts and culture space. Now with its own 140-seat theatre, including the only licensed bar in a library in North America, Wordfest was able to program year-round, increasing the diversity and range of the authors it could showcase (and the related audiences it could attract). Through its stellar reputation among authors, publishers, and agents, Wordfest helps put Central Library’s Patricia M. Whelan Theatre, MRU’s Taylor Centre, Decidedly Jazz Dance Centre, The Grand, and Arts Commons on the literary map.
Beginning in 2019, to increase equity and impact, Wordfest’s Youth program was refocused on increasing teen literacy and highly theatrical engagement experiences were offered free of charge to students in Grades 5 to 12.
Responding immediately to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Wordfest pivoted to produce original online programming that reached global audiences exceeding 80,000 and produced 150+ shows over the two-year period that garnered national acclaim.
From 2022 to 2024, Wordfest successfully returned to live in-person, year-round programming, continually improving and enhancing its ability to spark meaningful author-audience connections. With the introduction and integration of Wordfest’s “MORE” branding campaign in 2025, the experienced team and focused board are well-situated to continue this Calgary success story, beaming out “wordy goodness” near and far from the foothills of the Canadian Rockies.
What Makes Wordfest Unique
Wordfest is your ticket to MORE. (Even our thought bubbles have thought bubbles.)
Wordfest is able to think differently about the literary arts because we are rooted in a city at the confluence of the Bow and the Elbow, reckoning with the past with our eyes on the future, rocked and rejuvenated by busts and booms. We reflect Calgary’s Blue Sky brand: “a city of blue-sky thinking and innovation, a place of unexpected possibilities and a place of confluence —where peoples, lands, cultures and ideas converge.” Calgary has the youngest and most highly educated populace of any major Canadian city, with a large number of American and international permanent residents. We are also increasingly diverse, with more than one third of residents identifying as racialized. We attract knowledge workers, not only in oil and gas, but also in tech, renewables, gaming, and film and television. We remain a city of entrepreneurs, free thinkers, and risk takers. We are capable of more than even we think we are.
This echoes Wordfest’s overall programming philosophy of being more. More than one kind of author, one kind of reader, one kind of book. More than panels, more than readings. More than a festival. More engaging, entertaining, welcoming. More than you expect.
“Your festival is so beautifully run. Your crew and staff do their utmost to make both writers and the festival attendees feel welcome. And you score 11 on a 10-point scale when it comes to creativity. There is no other festival quite like it!” –Nita Prose, author of the international best-selling series The Maid
Wordfest's Impact on the Arts
We have created a year-round organization that was built to stay ahead of the curve, nimble and unafraid of taking well-considered risks. Unlike Toronto or Vancouver (or New York and London), Calgary has to try harder, do better—yes, think bigger—to attract the authors we want to showcase. That’s a challenge we embrace.
Wordfest fully understands its key role in the local, provincial, and national literary arts presentation ecosystem. The economic benefits are substantial, whether paying sector-leading fees to artists and arts workers, filling local venues, hotels and restaurants, and spotlighting community partners. Our programming partnerships enable the Calgary Public Library and other arts organizations to make their funding go further. And our events generate yearly book sales of $170,000, contributing to the resiliency of independent booksellers and the Canadian publishing industry.
We right-size each opportunity to ensure the best experience and full attendance for authors and audiences. We present in our 140-seat theatre at Memorial Park Library, as well as in larger venues of 240 to 1,700 seats, leaving book launches and smaller shows for local bookstores and writing series. This enables Wordfest to serve the larger community by creating deeper sessions on craft or an aspect of the publishing industry that would be of general interest.
Wordfest consults with publishers, agents, other authors, and community members to help identify the best year-round mix of literary talent. This enables us to repeatedly program future award nominees, as well as debut novelists before they become superstars.
Wordfest's Core Activities
In this age of sound bites, we design our shows to spark deep engagement.
Wordfest presents the world’s best authors and books to inclusive audiences in a variety of professionally produced formats, with an emphasis on supporting and sustaining audience engagement with the arts in Alberta. To enhance our experiences, we commission and showcase artists from other disciplines outside the literary arts, such as music, theatre, film, video, and graphic and fine art. By creatively programming across all genres, enthusiasms, and platforms and then marketing our arts experiences extensively, we have been able to attract, sustain, and grow audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
“Wordfest has jettisoned readings in favour of much more exciting and wide-ranging conversations with writers punctuated with tightrope-worthy events that will keep me coming back for many years to come!” –Charlotte Gill, author of Almost Brown
Our programming is designed to create the best opportunities for authors and audiences to meaningfully connect. Our professionally produced experiences range from “talk-show style” conversations to original, theatrical event concepts (including creative staging, projections, video, original music) and Spirited Conversations or lunch and dinner salons, paired with local food and beverage partners.
The Imaginairium Festival
Every October, we showcase 45+ authors in 35+ original live arts experiences (e.g. What a Pair! conversations, Big Ideas showcases, our unique The Way We… storytelling showcase, How to’s, The O’Neill Reads Talk Show, Literary Death Match, Deep Dish Culture) over five days. Approximately 85% of the artists presented are Canadian, showcasing major stars, groundbreakers, vital voices, and emerging talents. Mainstage acts are held at Memorial Park, DJD Dance Centre, and the Bella Concert Hall, with youth events at Central Library and DJD Dance Centre.
“The connection, the depth, the breadth of ideas – you are so good at what you do. I appreciate it deeply!” –Claire Cameron, Winner of the 2025 Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction
Year-Round Programming
Wordfest’s year-round season offers live arts experiences ranging from 75-minute “talk-show style” conversations with short readings and audience Q&A to 90-minute original, theatrical event concepts (including creative staging, projections, video, original music, and local food and beverage partners). Through strategic partnerships with larger venues (including MRU’s Taylor Centre & Werklund Centre and investments in target marketing, we’re also attracting new audiences who are drawn to romance, graphic novels, poetry, our Way We Storytelling events, and cross-genre experiences.
“Wordfest is so friendly, open, wide-ranging, interesting, and entertaining. It is so incredible to have an experience that brings us all together. This sense of community, belonging, learning, sharing, growing, laughing, crying and all in all having a great time is soul-renewing.” –Wordfest Audience Member