Our yearly celebration of CBC’s Canada Reads is one of our liveliest showcases and this year, it’s too hot to handle. We couldn’t resist the allure of putting the hockey book—Searching for Terry Punchout penned by Calgary’s Tyler Hellard—in “forced proximity” to the romance read—the debut It’s Different This Time by Emmy Award-winning producer Joss Richard. Will they or won’t they… be the author of the last book standing when CBC’s great Canadian book debate heats up April 13-16? Only their celebrity champions—YouTube personality and podcaster Steve “Dangle” Glynn and BookTok star Morgann Book—know for sure.

We’ll have all four on the Memorial Park stage sharing insider insights about what makes these novels heavyweight contenders. Shelley Youngblut will host, teasing out secrets and strategies from the author-champion text threads. And if your secret crush asks when your English got so good, you can answer, “I come to Wordfest shows!”

This event includes an audience Q & A and book signing fuelled by Owl’s Nest Books.

Searching for Terry Punchout

Tyler Hellard’s stellar debut hit me like an errant stick to the head. –Terry Fallis, two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour

Garden State meets King Leary in this slapshot debut novel.

Adam Macallister’s sportswriting career is about to end before it begins, but he’s got one last shot—a Sports Illustrated profile about hockey’s most notorious goon, the reclusive Terry Punchout—who also happens to be Adam’s estranged father. Adam returns to Pennington, Nova Scotia, where Terry now lives in the local rink and drives the Zamboni. Going home means drinking with old friends, revisiting neglected relationships, and dealing with lingering feelings about his father and dead mother—and discovering that his friends and family are kinder and more complicated than he ever gave them credit for. Searching for Terry Punchout is a charming and funny tale of hockey, small-town Maritime life, and how, despite our best efforts, nothing can save us from becoming our parents

About Tyler Helland

Tyler Hellard grew up in Prince Edward Island, graduated from St. Francis Xavier University and now lives in Calgary with his wife and kids, where he writes commercial copy, technology criticism and essays. His non-fiction has appeared in THIS Magazine, The Walrus, and on CBC Radio. Before finally quitting hockey at 18, he was pretty bad at it.

About Searching for Terry Punchout champion Steve “Dangle” Glynn

Steve “Dangle” Glynn is the host of the Steve Dangle Podcast, a podcast that blends conversations about hockey with the latest in pop culture. A former television analyst on Sportsnet, he’s a popular YouTuber and broadcaster. Glynn also co-founded SDPN, a network of eight sports podcasts, and captivates audiences with his rants and hot takes. He lives in Ajax, On.

YouTube: SteveDangle
Instagram: @stevedangle

It’s Different This Time

“It’s Different This Time is the rich, decadent romance of the year we’ve been waiting for.” –Sarah Adams, New York Times bestselling author of the Rome, Kentucky Series

A twist of fate forces two former roommates to move back into their beloved New York City brownstone where they must confront the events that led to their estrangement—and the unresolved feelings lingering between them.

Reeling from the cancellation of her hit TV show, June Wood has nothing left to lose when a mysterious email lures her back to the New York City brownstone she once called home before she moved to Los Angeles. Thanks to a clause in the former owner’s will, she and her old roommate, Adam Harper, now own the multi-million-dollar property—or at least they will in a month, once all the paperwork is signed.

Four weeks, then June can return to her life in LA and forget about New York City and everything she left behind. Sure, the fact that June and Adam are estranged and haven’t even spoken in five years, and that their friendship didn’t exactly end on good terms might complicate matters, but this is an opportunity of a lifetime.

As the autumn leaves fall around them, through shared meals and late-night conversations, old wounds and long-buried sparks resurface, and it becomes strikingly clear: June and Adam have unfinished business. Confronted with the consequences of their choices years before, they must now navigate the minefield of their past the best way they know how: together. Second chances are always a risk, but maybe, if they get it right and are finally honest with each other and with themselves, it could be different this time.

About Joss Richard

Joss Richard is an editorial & social director who’s worked at companies such as Hello Sunshine and Reese’s Book Club, The Walt Disney Company, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Netflix, and Paramount. She’s also the creator and host of Three’s Company, Too: A Rewatch Podcast and has been formally recognized with a Daytime Emmy Award. Born in Toronto to Filipino immigrant parents, Richard currently lives and works in Los Angeles. It’s Different This Time is her debut novel.

Website: jossrichard.com
Instagram: @joss.richard

About It’s Different This Time champion Morgann Book

Morgann Book is one of Canada’s biggest book content creators, with 2.6 million followers on TikTok and nearly 140,000 on Instagram. From Ancaster, ON, Book has made a name for herself as a literary enthusiast, creating social media content and hosting the author interview podcast Off The Shelf.  She is also the founder of Bookish Media, a production company that develops and creates book-related media. Book is the curator of The Bookish Club, a global monthly book club, and was recently announced as part of Reese Witherspoon’s 2026 talent incubator.

Substack: Bookish Media
TikTok: @morgannbook
Instagram: @morgannbook AND @bookish.media