Celebrating its 30th Anniversary in 2025, Wordfest™ produces lively, accessible shows year-round, in addition to presenting the Imaginairium Festival every October. Our goal is to help you think bigger, dig deeper, and build meaningful connections with the world’s best authors and books. 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.
Sign up for our newsletter here so you’ll never miss out on the wide range of local, national, and international writers that we are able to showcase in Calgary. For questions or assistance booking tickets, please email us at boxoffice@wordfest.com
Looking for the antidote for the chaos that has overwhelmed any attempt to understand what is news and what is fiction? Wordfest is thrilled to welcome Alberta's misinformation expert Timothy Caulfield and his new book, The Certainty Illusion: What You Don’t Know and Why It Matters. Says Dr. Jen Gunter, “Caulfield masterfully unpacks how we often confuse data with knowledge, offering readers a clear, actionable guide to discerning fact from fiction in a world overflowing with conflicting information. Whether navigating health advice, social issues, or daily news, this essential read empowers you to think critically and avoid the traps of certainty.”
READ MORE"A treasure." That's what Shelagh Rogers says about David A. Robertson and his new memoir, All The Little Monsters: How I Learned to Live with Anxiety. "My friend Dave is wide open, unflinchingly honest, and brave. So brave." The opening chapter recounts unforgettable backstage and onstage examples of collective kindnesses that took place during the 2019 Imaginairium festival. It's all part of Wordfest's David Robertson lore, our special bond that makes the Calgary launch event an unmissable opportunity.
READ MORE"Doom and gloom and unspeakable horror abound and overwhelm these days, but it remains important to understand what we already know is happening now and how it will be understood in the future. It helps when we feel helpless to give our time and attention, our hearts and consideration to a voice like this, a book like this, from our particular time and for it." That's Tommy Orange (There There), highlighting the relevance and necessity of this exclusive Wordfest event with Omar El Akkad and his new book: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.
READ MOREWordfest™ beams out from Calgary, Canada 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 small team’s mission (which is to connect the world’s best audiences with the world’s best authors) has evolved to include producing lively, accessible shows year-round, in addition to the fall Imaginairium Festival. Our unique (and free) Wordfest Youth program focuses fuelling literacy in Grades 5 to 12, providing interactive experiences and class sets of books to thousands of students every year. We also produce Imagine On Air Audio, as well as online programming.