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Wordfest

30 years of wordy goodness.

, Sep 17, 2025

Wordfest turns 30 this year and since its inception has inspired audiences of all ages to think bigger, dig deeper, and build meaningful relationships with the world’s most compelling authors. Every October, Wordfest produces The Imaginairium (Oct. 14-19, 2025), Canada’s Liveliest Literary Festival, but also presents the world’s most intriguing authors (in every genre!) from January through December.

The grand finale of the anniversary celebration is the sold-out Wordfest presents Margaret Atwood (who appeared at the first fall festival in 1996) hosted by the astonishing Heather O’Neill at the Jack Singer Concert Hall. 

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.

In this short film by Pluto Pictures with music by Kenna Burima, Founding Director Anne Green joins Wordfest’s current CEO & Creative Ringleader Shelley Youngblut to share major moments that have brought Wordfest to this very special milestone.

 

Header image: Heather Saitz

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. In addition to year-round programming and the fall Imaginairium festival, our unique (and free) Wordfest Youth program focuses on Grades 5 to 12 to fuel teen literacy, providing interactive experiences and contemporary books to thousands of Calgary students every year. We also produce Imagine On Air Audio to make our programming even more accessible.

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