Shelley Youngblut connects smart, funny people with life-changing ideas as the CEO & Creative Ringleader of Wordfest. In partnership with the Calgary Public Library, she is transforming Alberta’s oldest library into a vibrant arts and culture hub.

Shelley created her first magazine, VOX, while studying English at the University of Calgary, and her 20-year-career culminated in a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 from the Western Magazine Awards. She was the founding editor of the award-winning Swerve magazine and has created magazines for ESPN, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, Nickelodeon and The Globe & Mail. She is also the author of three sports books, published by Hyperion in New York.

A former pop culture correspondent for ABC World News Now and Canada AM, she is unconventionally opinionated on CBC Calgary’s Eyeopener and also part of a weekly urban advice column. The mother of identical twins and a perfect dog, she wishes she could sing, win more at Texas Hold ’Em and bring Patti Smith to Calgary.