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. Wordfest’s Paula Turcotte will MC, 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!”

Calgary’s own Glenn Dixon, the internationally bestselling author of Juliet’s Answer, returns to Wordfest with his highly anticipated new novel, The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances, a charming tale—with timely Orwellian overtones—about a sentient Roomba vacuum that sets out to save the humans in her house.

Hosted by the CBC Calgary Eyeopener’s Loren McGinnis, the conversation includes an audience Q & A and book signing, fuelled by Shelf Life Books. You can also pre-order copies of The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances as well as Dixon’s back list at the link here.

Wordfest, in partnership with Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts, is thrilled to present an evening with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, one of the world’s foremost historians and leading antiracist scholars. In his new book, Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age, the internationally bestselling author of How to Be An Antiracist offers an unsettling but indispensable global history of how great replacement theory brought humanity into this authoritarian age—and how we can free ourselves from it. And yes, he does include the spread of remigration rhetoric in Canada, placing the freedom convoy and anti-vaccine movement in a broader context.

This timely conversation will be hosted by Calgary political and non-profit strategist Zain Velji. Owl’s Nest Books will be on site with copies of Chain of Ideas, as well as Dr. Kendi’s extensive backlist.

We’ll try not to fangirl. When we first heard about Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel, Yesteryear, about a social media influencer and “tradwife” who wakes up one morning living 170 years in the past, we immediately reached out to her publisher to bring her to Calgary! As was actor Anne Hathaway, who optioned the book before pub date. So we’re thrilled that Burke—who co-hosts Diabolical Lies, a podcast we’re also somewhat obsessed with—is coming to Wordfest on her only Canadian tour date. The conversation, hosted by Paula Turcotte, includes an audience Q&A and book signing.

Can’t wait to see what all the buzz is about? You can pre-order your copy of Yesteryear here from Shelf Life Books.