The archives of Wordfest, Calgary’s longest-running and most popular literary festival, are a treasure trove of both the written word and of the city’s recent history.
This year marked the 30th anniversary of Wordfest, which has seen numerous luminary authors connect directly with the city’s passionate audiences.
Year-over-year, the festival has drawn some of the biggest names in literature—people like Margaret Atwood, who Wordfest Ringleader and CEO Shelley Youngblut called a goddess of literature who was with the festival from day one, and poet and essayist Richard Harrison, who likewise has been a longtime participant of the festival.
“We’ve always been about that deep interchange between author and writer, but what we’ve done over the 30 years is we’ve constantly changed. It’s such a Calgary festival. So we’ve grown with the times. We’ve added so much theatricality,” said Youngblut.
“We don’t call this an author reading. We don’t even use the word literary. This is all about experiences. It’s all about coming to a show, gathering with other Calgarians, becoming the best version of yourself. And you know what? If you had a good time at the show, think of the book as the t-shirt after a concert.”
For the past 30 years, Calgarians have been looking for connection, said Youngblut.
“They’re looking for big ideas. They’re looking for life changing experiences, and they’re looking to connect with the world’s best authors.”
That history is now on display at the Central Library, with posters, books, t-shirts, and all sorts of other items on display from the entire history of the festival.
The collection even includes some never-seen-before items, like the pandemic-era poster for Wordfest that was never able to be displayed as the events, more than 200 of them, were held virtually.
“Calgary’s been blessed with the world’s best graphic designers. We worked with Janine Vangool (for) the very first festival. You can see her first festival poster. Then we’ve (had) Danae Thompson. We’ve had Peter Mahler from Egg Press,” Youngblut said.
“There isn’t a rock band or a theatre company in Calgary that hasn’t benefited from Peter’s graphic art work, but Wordfest was among the first.”
Mahler has created the current poster for the 30th anniversary, which Youngblut said was nicknamed bright ideas in dark times.
“You’re going to see Lisa Brawn, the Calgary wood crafting artist, and some of her objects. You’re going to see bingo cards that we made by an ACAD student named Erica Guan. You’re going to see the bead project, where, in 2019, every single event and author had a bead, and you could create your own handcrafted bracelet as a festival memory,” she said.
Reaching back to the 20th anniversary, Youngblut said that the life-sized author cutouts used for that festival would also be on display again.
Youngblut said that having the exhibition at the library was appropriate, given the long history that the festival has had with CPL.
“The library was Word Fest’s founding partner. So, they were there with us in 1996 and then in 2016 when the festival was struggling. It was the library that stood up and said, ‘We’ll be your partner, we’ll actually give you a performance space at Memorial Park Library,'” she said.
“Because of that gift, that ability to community build with partners, Word Fest has been able to thrive. So, we now do 100 shows a year, and here we are at the beautiful new Central Library. Word Fest put on the very first author show at Central Library when it opened its doors with Susan Orlean and The Library Book. It’s only fitting that we are here for the anniversary celebration.”
The exhibition will be on display at the Central Library until June 15.
