Wordfest Imaginarium Festival brings bestsellers, newsmakers to Calgary

It's being called Canada's liveliest literary event. Next month, the Wordfest Imaginarium Festival comes to Calgary, and over five days, Calgarians will get a chance to meet more than 50 bestselling  and news making authors. CTV News anchor Camilla Di Giuseppe spoke Thursday with Shelley Youngblut, CEO and Creative Ringleader of the Wordfest Imaginarium Festival.

Q. Let's chat about the use of the word "Imaginarium" and how it fits into the festival - I love it.

A. OK, so I made it up. What we didn't want to do is have a stuffy festival – we didn't want this to be only for people who think of themselves as kind of like brainiacs. We want this to be for anybody who's interested in connection, being part of a bigger conversation, and we wanted to bring a breath of fresh air to the literary festival community and so we thought, "Imaginarium".

Q. I love that! Let's tap into who some of those featured authors are and why this (festival) is such a hit with them.

A. This is the 28^th annual festival, we've been doing this since 1996. Over the years, we've formed connections  - not just with the audiences, which is very important to us – but also with Canadian authors and international authors.

Wordfest returns to Calgary Oct. 11

And so we just basically bring our friends back – every year, we make these incredible relationships with great Canadian authors – so you've got everybody from Lorna Crozier to Michelle Good, who won Canada Reads to our own Josh Whitehead, who won Canada Reads. We've got Terry Fallis and Linwood Barclay and Ashley Audrain - all the bestsellers, all the groundbreakers and an incredible roster of Indigenous artists.

These are the best storytellers so it's really everybody who's writing sublime, tasty delicious books right now.

Q. What can visitors expect at a literary festival? What are some of the surprises?

A. No.1, we never use the word literary – so this is a festival of ideas, of thinking bigger. I think you can see from the images on the screen, it's super-engaging.  We've got theatrical performances. We've got musicians. We've got a bar in the library!

I don't know if Calgarians know that Memorial Park Library, the oldest library in Alberta, we've got the second-floor theatre, and there's a bar called Libations and its right up there.

It's very, very interactive and you do not need to read the book – we think of the book as the (lit fest equivalent of a rock concert) t-shirt: you come, you engage, you get inspired, and if you want to take the book home, great.

Q. People love a good book – but I imagine there will also be aspiring writers (who hope to write one) attending. Is that who goes?

A. Yes. And we've come up with a new series called How To's – but it's super-cheeky. Basically, it's things like, how to survive academia, how to Rom-Com, how to be a good sport, how to deal – so it's looking at the business and the craft of writing from a much more easty-going, intimate and we hope authentic and honest perspective.

And all of those shows are free.

The rest of our shows are ticketed, it's a $20-$25 ticket – but you're going to literally have access to everybody and something called the signing line- so after every event, you get to meet the stars, and I can't think of another artform where you're guaranteed an opportunity to have your picture taken, get your book signed, we have tote bags you can get signed,  but it's all about those connections.

Wordfest 2023 features 50 authors including Mary L. Trump, comedy legend Brent Butt, novelist Emma Donoghue, Mona Awad, Will Ferguson, Amy Jones, Craig Davidson, Cherie Dimaline, Heather and Arizona O'Neill, and many others.

For more information, go here.