To say that this year’s Wordfest Imaginarium festival is hot would be a vast understatement.

Even before the festival announced its lineup of authors for 2025, long-time festival-goers snapped up the limited number of festival passes available, knowing that there would be something, a lot of something to see.

For this year’s 30th anniversary of Wordfest, CEO and creative festival ringleader Shelley Youngblut has booked 50 of the top authors currently on hot lists and bestseller shelves at virtually every bookstore across North America.

What may come as a surprise this year, especially when people see some of the names not normally associated with CanLit, is that 92 per cent of those authors are Canadian.

“When you talk about Canadian authors, you are talking about Emma Donoghue, you are talking about Thomas King, you are talking about Miriam Toews. You’re talking about Madeleine Thien, you’re talking about Souvankham Thammasvongsa. You’re talking about all of these people who are multiple award winners, big best sellers and icons,” said Youngblut.

“They’re all heavyweights. So, the tagline for the festival this year is CanLit Supernova Celebration. They’re supernovas. They’re not just tiny little stars or emerging talent. These are supernovas.”

She said that list also includes some luminaries that are associated with American cultural industries, like Hart Hanson, who was the executive producer and writer for the TV show Bones, but is from Canada.

He’ll be part of the Imaginarium show The Shit No One Tells You About TV, with fellow Canadians Andrew Phung and Susan Nielsen, the latter of whom is behind the show Family Law.

Other speakers include Paul Myers, the brother of Mike Myers, who will be talking about his definitive biography of Canadian comedy legend John Candy.

The creator of the word enshittification, Cory Doctorow, whom Youngblut said many people also don’t realize is Canadian.

“I think we’ve done a really good job, both nationally, but also very much locally, of showcasing our own. If you look at the best seller lists… the Canadian books are at the top,” said Youngblut.

“We have a book called Elbows Up that is part of the festival, that is a celebration of Canadian culture. We’ve always been elbows up in the world of literature. I think elbows up has always been the way we’ve looked at it.”

Years of relationship building have brought in demand authors to Calgary

On the non-Canadian side, Youngblut said that the festival was able to get E. Jean Carroll—who twice sued and won against now-President Donald Trump—due to her affection for the festival.

“One of the things that’s really fabulous about it is these are all people that Wordfest, and because of Wordfest, Calgarians have a relationship with. The reason that E. Jean is coming is because we were the only ones to present her when her book came out back in 2019. We’re the only ones in North America,” said Youngblut.

That sentiment of affection was echoed by number one New York Times bestselling author Nita Prose.

“The Imaginairium scores an 11 out of 10 when it comes to creativity. There is nothing quite like it,” she said.

Youngblut said that another important aspect of this year’s Imaginarium was the number of Indigenous authors who will be a part of the festival.

“We have always been really grateful for the Indigenous writers, and Canada has world-leading, genre-busting, future-forward thinking Indigenous writers. This is something that Canada is known for internationally, and they all have relationships with Wordfest. And so you’re getting the best of the best,” she said.

Youngblut said the festival variety was the antidote to the exhaustion that had come with dark times.

“These are really chaotic, challenging times. There is hope in these collections. There is a sense of a different kind of future in these books and in these authors. So, when you come to the Imaginarium, you are going to feel enlightened, but more than anything else, you’re going to feel invigorated when we’re all so exhausted,” she said.

Although festival passes have sold out, tickets for individual shows are still available.

Tickets are available at wordfest.com.