Mario Allende (CAN) was born in Chile and raised in Canada. He is best known as the driving force in Bomba! He mixes the drum kit, timbales, congas and myriad percussion instruments as effortlessly as he incorporates the traditional and contemporary styles that give the band its unique sound. A studied yet emotional player, Allende is restlessly creative and performs with the spirit that the music demands. WordFest welcomes Mario Allende as the musical director for the Thursday Night Showcase, Word of Mouth and The Poetry Cabaret.
Mario Allende is a WordFest alumnus: 2008.
Events:
27 - Thursday Night Showcase
29 - Word of Mouth
55 - Poetry Cabaret |
Robert Arthur Alexie (CAN) was once chief of the Tetlit Gwich'in of Fort McPherson in Canada’s Northwest Territories where he was born and raised. He was instrumental in obtaining a land claim agreement for the Gwich'in and served two terms as vice president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council. Porcupines and China Dolls marks his writing debut with a dramatic, haunting glimpse into the generations of students within the residential school system, imposed upon an aboriginal people all but forgotten by the world and a system that many still struggle to forget. He now lives in Inuvik.
Events:
24 - Porcupines and China Dolls
44 - Uncharted Territories
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Miguel Ángel Arenas (SPA) is a Spanish poet who is renowned for his oversized and innovative poetry project, El Mund, Un Poema Giagante or in English, The World, A Giant Poem. In this revolutionary approach to writing poetry, Arenas creates giant poems approximately 150 meters long. The first part of the poem is created by Arenas and the immense blank paper is left to be filled with connected poems written by the collective community. These impressive cooperative poems have already been created to great acclaim across seven countries and in 14 different cities around the world.
Miguel Ángel Arenas appears in cooperation with the Cervantes Institute.
Miguel Ángel Arenas (ESP) es un poeta español conocido por un grandioso e innovador proyecto literario, El Mundo, Un Poema Gigante. A través de esta revolucionaria visión de la escritura poética, Arenas crea poemas gigantes de aproximadamente 150 metros de largo. La primera parte del poema está escrita por Arenas que deja la inmensa hoja de papel en blanco para rellenarla con otros poemas interconectados escritos por el público general de la comunidad. Estos impresionantes poemas colectivos han sido creados con gran éxito en 7 países y 14 ciudades de todo el mundo.
Miguel Ángel Arenas participa gracias a la colaboración del Instituto Cervantes.
Events:
2 - Giant Poem Extravaganza
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 | photo credit: Christian
Cleury |
Elaine Arsenault (CAN) vit à Montréal. Elle a rencontré le succès grâce à son premier album illustré Le grand rêve de Passepoil, qui a remporté en France le prix Tatoulu en 2005, ainsi que d’autres récompenses. Depuis, trois autres albums avec ce drôle de petit chien ont été publiés. La petite frousse de Passepoil est le dernier paru. Elaine Arsenault nous transmet sa joie de vivre à travers ces histoires farfelues qui ont été traduites dans huit langues. Pour les plus grands, La quête de Lily, le dernier volet de la saga L’or des gitans est une passionnante histoire romanesque pleine de suspense, d’aventure et d’émotion.
Elaine Arsenault (CAN) achieved instant success with her first picture book Doggie in the Window which was awarded France’s le prix Tatoulu and a Governor General’s award nomination for Illustration. Arsenault has subsequently written three books featuring this funny little dog, the latest of which is La petite frousse de Passepoil. Arsenault injects joie de vivre into her stories which are translated into eight languages. La quête de Lily, the last book in the L’or des gitans saga, is an exciting historical novel full of mystery, adventure and emotion.
Events:
16 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Elaine Arsenault, Tim Wynne-Jones
31 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Elaine Arsenault, Dominique Demers
34 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Elaine Arsenault, Sylvain Hotte
28 - Rendez-vous à Livres LaCoste
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 | photo credit: George
Whiteside |
Margaret Atwood (Can) is the author of more than forty books – novels, short stories, poetry, literary criticism, social history, and books for children. Atwood’s work is acclaimed internationally and has been published around the world. She is the recipient of numerous honours, such as The Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence in the U.K., the National Arts Club Medal of Honor for Literature in the U.S., Le Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, and she was the first winner of the London Literary Prize. She has received honorary degrees from universities across Canada, and one from Oxford University in England.
Events:
WordFest Presents Margaret Atwood, September 29, 2009
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 | photo: Chris Schwarz |
Todd Babiak is an author, journalist and screenwriter. Babiak is also on the board of PEN Canada, on the steering committee for Architecture Alberta and is a columnist for the Edmonton Journal. Toby: A Man follows etiquette commentator Toby Menard’s fall from grace that finds him living back with his parents. Trapped with a toddler and forced to deal with his father's tragedies, Toby emerges from the basement bungalow of his life-muddy, broke, bruised, heartbroken-but, finally, a man. Babiak is currently living abroad with his family in France. WGA and WordFest Celebrate Freedom to Read Week with Todd Babiak
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Venue: The Auburn Saloon
163-115 9 Ave. NE
FREE
Start: Doors open at 5:30pm with reading to follow at 7:00pm |
 | photo credit: David
Ellingsen | Elizabeth Bachinsky (CAN) is one of Canada’s leading young poets and one of the strongest Ukrainian Canadian voices of her generation. Her work was nominated for the Governor General's Award for Poetry in 2006 and the Bronwen Wallace Award in 2004 and has appeared in literary journals, anthologies and on film in Canada, the United States, France, Ireland, England and China. She is the Poetry Editor for Event magazine, a publication of Douglas College where she is an instructor of creative writing. She has authored three collections of poetry, Curio, Home of Sudden Service and her latest, God of Missed Connections.
Events:
29 - Word of Mouth
52 - Afternoon Delight
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 | photo credit: Mandy
Heyens
| Jonathan Ball writes fiction, poetry, screenplays and non-fiction. He has two poetry books forthcoming from BookThug: Ex Machina (Dec. 2009) and The Words of the Book (2010, co-written with Kevin Mcpherson Eckhoff). He wrote and directed the film Spoony B, which has screened at many festivals and on The Comedy Network, and co-wrote the feature screenplay Way of the Samurai, which was adapted and directed by Joseph S. Novak as Snake River (to be released independently). He is completing a PhD at the University of Calgary. Jonathan is the former Managing Editor of Dandelion magazine.
**Filling Station Author
Events:
1 - Alberta Bound: Get Your Fill
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 | photo credit: © Martine
Doyon
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François Barcelo (CAN) est connu pour son engagement dans le monde de la littérature québécoise. Il a écrit plus de quarante livres adultes et jeunesse et a reçu de nombreux prix. Le Nul et la chipie a gagné le Prix TD de littérature jeunesse et s’est classé au Palmarès Communication-Jeunesse des livres préférés des jeunes en 2004-2005. Il a reçu en 2007 le prix du Gouverneur-Général pour La fatigante et le fainéant. Au WordFest, il apportera aussi Premier roman pour Momo de Sinro ainsi que le dernier livre de cette même série Premier frérot pour Momo et Sinro, qui est paru cette année.
Events:
6 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: François Barcelo, Sylvie Massicotte
15 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: François Barcelo, Dominique Demers
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David Bouchard (CAN) is the celebrated author and poet of over 35 bestselling books, many of which are published in English and French. An educator, presenter and literacy advocate, he was recently named to the Order of Canada. Accolades for his writing include the Governor General’s Award for Illustration, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and the Gold Medal in the Moonbeam Award, among others. Classic works include If You're Not from the Prairie and Qu'Appelle. Accessible to all ages, Bouchard presents his latest works: The Secret of Your Name, which explores what it means to be Métis, and Long Powwow Nights, a poetic narrative that impresses upon one’s sense of culture and identity.
David Bouchard is a WordFest Alumnus: 1996, 1998, 2006.
Events:
4 - What's in a Name?
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Brian Brett (CAN) is the author of several books of poetry and Uproar’s Your Only Music, a Globe and Mail Book of the Year. He currently writes a newspaper column called CultureWatch for the Yukon News, where he was also poetry critic and columnist. Writing and publishing since the 1960s, he has edited the Governor General award-winning Blackfish Press and written for various publications including the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and the Vancouver Sun. His latest work, Trauma Farm is a fascinating memoir, which illustrates the extraordinary scope of Brett’s writing.
Briant Brett is a WordFest Alumnus: 2005.
Events:
37 - Friday Night Showcase
47 - Location, location, location
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Bonnie Burnard (CAN) is a past winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Best First Book Award for her first collection of short stories, Women of Influence. Her second collection, Casino & Other Stories, was nominated for the Giller Prize and was awarded the Saskatchewan Best Book of the Year Award. She was the recipient of the 1995 Marian Engel Award, which honours a woman writer in mid-career. Following her Giller Prize winning novel, A Good House, Burnard presents her much anticipated new novel, Suddenly, an intimate portrait of three middle aged women and their enduring friendship.
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Don Calame (CAN) is a screenwriter, young adult writer and blogger. As a screenwriter he has worked with Marvel Studios, The Disney Channel, Lionsgate, Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures. His film projects include Hounded and Employee of the Month. In his prior role as a elementary school teacher, Calame received the LAUSD District Intern Golden Apple Award and a Los Angeles Education Partnership Grant. Calame’s first young adult novel, Swim the Fly, is a witty tale of three teens who have set a quirky summer goal. Hilarious and heart-warming, Swim the Fly is a true ode to the adolescent male.
Events:
7 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Don Calame, Arthur Slade
32 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Don Calame, Hiromi Goto
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Barry Callaghan (CAN) founded the internationally celebrated literary quarterly, Exile, and imprint, Exile Editions, while he was a war correspondent in the Middle East and Africa in the 1970s. He is a novelist, poet and man of letters and his work has been much anthologised. His numerous awards include Toronto’s One Hundred Outstanding Citizens Award, the inaugural W. Mitchell Award and the Foundation For The Advancement of Canadian Letters Award for Fiction which he was honoured with twice. His latest work, Beside Still Waters, is a passionate love story mixed with the adventure of Puerto Rico’s casinos, war torn Gabon and a leper colony deep in the African bush.
Barry Callaghan is a WordFest Alumnus: 1997 and 1998.
Events:
13 - Wednesday Night Showcase
52 - Afternoon Delight
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J.R. Carpenter (CAN) is a celebrated poet and short story writer and pioneering author of electronic literature. Her electronic literature has been presented in the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, the Rhizome ArtBase, the Web Biennial 2007 and the Electronic Literature Collection Volume One. Her short fiction has been anthologized in Le livre du chevet, In Other Words, Lust for Life and Short Stuff, and published in Geist, The New Quarterly, Matrix and Blood & Aphorisms. Her first novel, Words The Dog Knows, won the Expozine Alternative Press Award for Best English Book 2008.
J.R. Carpenter is a WordFest Alumna: 1997 and 1998.
Events:
20 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: J.R. Carpenter
42 - Youth Workshop - J.R. Carpenter
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 | photo credit: Robert
Mills
| Wayson Choy (CAN) shared the Trillium Book Award for best book in 1995 for his first novel, The Jade Peony. All That Matters, a companion novel to The Jade Peony, won the Trillium Book Award in 2005 and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. His memoir, Paper Shadows, won the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction, the Charles Taylor Prize and the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize. His recent work, Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying is a beautiful exploration of family and a poetic reminder to embrace life.
Wayson Choy is a WordFest Alumnus: 1996, 1999 and 2004.
Dr. Evelyn de Mille is proud to sponsor the appearance of Wayson Choy.
Events:
37 - Friday Night Showcase
44 - Uncharted Territories
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Jan Conn (CAN) has two major passions in her life: science and poetry. She is a professor of Biomedical Sciences whose research is focused on mosquitoes, their evolution and ecology. She has published six previous books of poetry including Jaguar Rain: the Margaret Mee Poems. Amazonia, a suite of poems, won second prize in the 2003 CBC Literary Awards and is included in her new book Botero's Beautiful Horses. Her work journeys away from the familiar into other cultures and includes works inspired by travel within Mexico and Brazil and also includes a poem written from Mars!
Events:
40 - Poetry Bash
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Karen Connelly (CAN) was born in Calgary and at twenty-four was the youngest person ever to win the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-fiction for Touch the Dragon: A Thai Journal, an account of the year she spent in Thailand. She had previously won the Pat Lowther Award for her first book of poetry, The Small Words in My Body. Her first novel, The Lizard Cage, was shortlisted for both the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction and the IMPAC Award and received The Orange Broadband Award for New Writers. She brings her latest work, Burmese Lessons, a personal memoir and love story set in politically charged 1990s Burma.
Karen Connelly is a WordFest Alumna: 1998.
Events:
13 - Wednesday Night Showcase
47 - Location, location, location
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 | photo credit: D.J. Weir
| Douglas Coupland (CAN) is attributed with the term Generation X and brings to WordFest Generation A, once again capturing the spirit of a generation with wit and insight. He was born on a NATO base in Germany in 1961 and currently lives and works in Vancouver. He is the author of the Number One international bestseller JPod, which was also a CBC mini series, and 10 other novels including Generation X, Shampoo Planet, Hey Nostradamus!, All Families Are Psychotic and The Gum Thief. His books have been translated into 35 languages and published in most countries around the world. He is also a visual artist and sculptor, furniture designer and the screenwriter of a feature film called Everything's Gone Green.
Douglas Coupland is a WordFest Alumnus: 2001.
Douglas Coupland is a WordFest Special Event Alumnus: 2003.
The Banff Centre is proud to sponsor Douglas Coupland as the 2009 Banff Distinguished Author.
Events:
54 - Banff Distinguished Author
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Lorna Crozier (CAN) has received two honourary doctorates for her contribution to Canadian literature, her poems have been translated into several languages and she has presented her work around the world. Her books have won the Governor General’s Award, the Canadian Authors’ Association Literary Award and two Pat Lowther Awards. One of Canada’s leading poets, she has published fourteen poetry collections including The Blue Hour of the Day. A Spanish translation of her poems, La Perspectiva del Gato has just been published in Mexico City. She presents her latest prose work, Small Beneath the Sky, A Prairie Memoir.
Lorna Crozier is a WordFest Alumna: 1996, 2002 and 2005.
Events:
37 - Friday Night Showcase
44 - Uncharted Territories
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Michael Crummey (CAN) is the author of a memoir, Newfoundland: Journey into a Lost Nation, a book of short stories, Flesh and Blood, three books of poetry and three novels. His first novel, River Thieves, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the IMPAC Award. His second, The Wreckage, was a national bestseller, a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and was longlisted for the IMPAC Award. His stories and poems have appeared in a wide range of magazines and anthologies. Galore, his recent work, is a family saga and love story spanning two centuries set in rural Newfoundland.
Michael Crummey is a WordFest Alumnus: 2005.
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Michael Davie (CAN) published a cartoon series, The Last Resort as a creative output influenced by his experience living within the somewhat eccentric resort subcultures of Waterton, Banff, Canmore and Jasper. He has since moved to Calgary. After receiving a Bachelor of Management, Davie moved on to study Creative Writing at both the University of Calgary and the Victoria School of Writing. He brings to WordFest Fishing for Bacon, his witty debut novel, which followed shortly after The Last Resort.
Events:
18 - Alberta Bound: Wild Rose Writers
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Kris Demeanor (CAN) is a Calgary based songwriter and spoken word artist who delights in exposing the underbelly of western Canadian culture. Demeanor has released six CDs and has performed at music festivals and clubs around North America, Europe and Australia. The short film based on his song 'I Have Seen the Future' screened at the Toronto and Sundance film festivals. Most recently, Kris has performed in Buzz Job—The True Story of Cal Cavendish, a musical theatre piece co-created with David van Belle. He won the Best New Writer Award at the 2009 National Magazine Awards (Get a Real Job).
Kris Demeanor is a WordFest Alumnus: 2006.
Events:
2 - WordFeast
29 - Word of Mouth
39 - Wicked Words
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 | photo credit: © Martine
Doyon |
Dominique Demers (CAN) a reçu en février le prix Raymond-Plante qui a souligné son apport exceptionnel à la littérature jeunesse. La grande quête de Jacob Jobin, L’Élu illustre son goût pour le merveilleux et son talent pour créer des personnages aux destinées bouleversantes. Dans un tout autre registre, elle démontre, dans Au bonheur de lire : Comment donner le goût de lire à son enfant de 0 à 8 ans qu’il suffit de 10 minutes par jour pour faire aimer la lecture aux enfants! Cette année au festival, elle présentera également La fabuleuse entraîneuse, un livre recommandé en 2008 par le Conseil Canadien d’évaluation des jouets et sa série Alexis.
Dominique Demers is a WordFest Alumna: 2001.
Events:
10 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Dominique Demers, Sylvain Hotte
15 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: François Barcelo, Dominique Demers
26 - Au bonheur de lire : Comment donner le goût de lire à son enfant de 0 à 8 ans
31 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Elaine Arsenault, Dominique Demers
28 - Rendez-vous à Livres LaCoste
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Marcelo Di Cintio (CAN) has travelled abroad as an award-winning travel writer. He is the author of two full-length travelogues, Harmattan: Wind Across West Africa and most recently, Poets and Pahlevans: A Journey Into the Heart of Iran. Di Cintio is also a freelance magazine writer whose writing has appeared in magazines such as The Walrus, EnRoute, Geist and Maisonneuve. His current project explores communities that live in the shadows of walls, fences, and other ‘hard’ barriers. He is the 2009-2010 Markin-Flanagan Canadian Writer in Residence, and a past member of the University of Calgary wrestling team.
Marcello Di Cintio is a WordFest Alumnus: 2006.
Events:
47 - Location, location, location
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 | photo credit: Josh Levine
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Cary Fagan (CAN) is an award-winning children’s author, an adult novelist, an editor and a magazine and newspaper contributor. Previous works include Gogol’s Coat, The Market Wedding, Daughter of the Great Zandini, The Fortress of Kaspar Snit and Beyond the Dance. Among his awards are the Toronto Book Award, the Jewish Book Committee Prize for Fiction and the Mr. Christie Silver Medal. Endorsed by the Richler family, Fagan creates exciting new adventures for Mordecai Richler’s iconic Jacob Two-Two in the just released Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas.
Cary Fagan is a WordFest Alumnus: 2007.
Events:
11 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Cary Fagan, Tim Wynne-Jones
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 | photo credit: Alex
Ferguson
| Will Ferguson (CAN) is Calgary based and among Canada’s bestselling authors. His novels include Happiness™, a satire about a self-help book that actually works, and Spanish Fly, a coming-of-age story set in the 1930s. Happiness™ has been published in 26 languages and 31 countries and was awarded the Leacock Medal for Humour and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction. Spanish Fly was nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Award and shortlisted for the Leacock Medal for Humour. Ferguson’s travel memoirs include Beauty Tips From Moose Jaw: Journeys in Search of Canada, which won him his second Leacock Medal, and Hitching Rides With Buddha. He presents Beyond Belfast at WordFest, the story of a personal 500 mile trek across Ireland, told in his inimitable style.
Will Ferguson is a WordFest Alumnus: 2002, 2005 and 2007.
Events:
27 - Thursday Night Showcase
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 | filling Station Magazine
issue 46, cover | filling Station Magazine is an innovative Calgary-based literary & arts magazine with national distribution. Remaining non-profit over 14 years and 46 issues, filling Station is run entirely by volunteers, and all material for publication is selected by a volunteer Collective and Editorial. filling Station also curates the monthly Flywheel Reading Series (first Thursdays at Pages Books on Kensington, free!), and the annual Calgary Blow-Out, a 3 day cross-genre festival presenting Calgary authors of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction, fine artists and independent musicians. To submit, subscribe or volunteer, visit our new site at www.fillingstation.ca filling Station is so proud to be part of Wordfest for the first time! Thank you to Calgary Arts Development, Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Canada Council for their wonderful continuing support. |
Jackie Flanagan (CAN) is the founding publisher and editor of Alberta Views magazine, which won Canadian Magazine of the Year for 2008 (National Magazine Awards Foundation). A strong supporter of democracy, education and the arts, Flanagan created Alberta Views to give local writers a platform to explore issues of public concern and celebrate the culture of the province. Flanagan is a former college educator, author of Grass Castles (Bayeux Arts, 1998) and is currently working on her second novel.
Jackie Flanagan is a WordFest Alumna: 1999.
Events:
25 - The Power of the Page: Industry Insiders Event
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Cecelia Frey (CAN) has authored five books of poetry, four novels, and three books of short fiction. She is a three-time recipient of the Writers Guild of Alberta Short Fiction Award for her short stories The Nefertiti Look, The Love Song of Romeo Paquette and Salamander Moon, and has also won awards for her playwriting. Frey has worked as an editor, teacher and freelance writer and her numerous reviews, essays and articles have appeared in an array of publications. In her latest, A Raw Mix of Carelessness and Longing, she follows friends and idols through the tempting path of a musician’s life.
Events:
18 - Alberta Bound: Wild Rose Writers
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Diana Gabaldon (USA) is the bestselling author of the wildly popular Outlander novels—Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, and the series companion The Outlandish Companion—as well as the bestselling series featuring Lord John Grey, a character she introduced in Voyager. Gabaldon was recognized with the 2006 Quill Book Award and the Corine International Book Award for A Breath of Snow and Ashes. An Echo in the Bone is her featured novel, the seventh volume in the Outlander series. She is one of the most beloved historical fiction writers of our time.
Diana Gabaldon is a WordFest Alumna: Special Events.
Events:
41 - Diana Gabaldon Presents
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 | photo credit: Laura Taylor
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Natale Ghent (CAN) is a renowned journalist and author whose work has garnered awards and recognition internationally. Her acclaimed novel No Small Thing won the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award, was named a Silver Birch Honour Book and was nominated for the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award. It was also chosen as a Junior Library Guild Selection in the US and a Border’s Original Voices selection. Her other books include All the Way Home and The Book of Living and Dying. She brings two new works to WordFest: The Odds Get Even and Gravity Brings Me Down.
Events:
14 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Natale Ghent, David Poulsen
21 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Natale Ghent, Tim Wynne-Jones
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Don Gillmor (CAN) is a nine time National Magazine award winner, a historian, educator and the author of Canada: A People’s History, The Desire of Every Living Thing and The Civil War on the Missouri-Kansas Border. After teaching college English, he worked as an editor at the U.S. Army's Combat Studies Institute. Gillmor has written articles about the Border War for Journal of the West, History Today and Wild West. He is a frequent contributor to The Walrus, Toronto Life and The Globe and Mail. His recent novel, Kanata, is an unforgettable narrative that examines the stories, myths and legends of those who formed the country and those formed by it.
Events:
13 - Wednesday Night Showcase
60 - Curtain Call
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 | | photo credit: Kiely Ramos |
Hiromi Goto (CAN) was born in Chiba-ken, Japan and immigrated to Canada with her family in 1969. Her first novel, Chorus of Mushrooms, examined the immigration experience and was the 1995 regional winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book and co-winner of the Japan-Canada Book Award. She is the author of a children’s novel, The Water of Possibility, an adult novel, the award-winning, The Kappa Child, and the short story collection, Hopeful Monsters. Her most recent novel, Half World, is an adventurous, genre-bending fantasy.
Hiromi Goto is a WordFest Alumna: 2001 and 2004.
Events:
32 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Don Calame, Hiromi Goto
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Kevin Hanson (CAN) is currently president of Simon and Schuster Canada, a position he has held since 2005. Prior to his appointment at Simon and Schuster, Hanson was the Vice President, Sales and Marketing
at HarperCollins Books of Canada. He is a publishing veteran, a graduate of the University of Alberta and holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Toronto, where he currently resides.
**Filling Station Author
Events:
50 - Keys to the Biz |
Sylvain Hotte (CAN) vit à Montréal. Il a quitté l’entreprise familiale pour se consacrer à l’écriture après la publication de son premier roman, Miguel Torres, en 1998. En 2004, il entreprend l’écriture d’une série jeunesse fantastique: Darhan, dont le premier tome, intitulé La fée du lac Baïkal a reçu le Prix Jeunesse de Science fiction et de Fantastique Québécois. Cette série relate l’histoire d’un jeune guerrier dans la Mongolie du 13ème siècle. Sa série pour adolescents la plus récente « Panache », raconte les aventures d’un jeune hockeyeur de la Côte-Nord. Aréna, le premier tome sera présenté au WordFest.
Events:
10 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Dominique Demers, Sylvain Hotte
34 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Elaine Arsenault, Sylvain Hotte
28 - Rendez-vous à Livres LaCoste
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David Huerta (MEX) is the author of nineteen books of poetry and is widely regarded as Mexico’s finest living poet. He was awarded the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize for his lifelong contributions to Mexican literature. He has been a central figure in two of the most influential poetic movements in late-twentieth-century Latin America—the neobaroque movement and that of postmodern language poetry. He has long been a voice of political activism and is currently a political columnist for the Mexican weekly Proceso; he is also a professor of literature at Mexico City’s Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Before Saying Any of the Great Words is Huerta’s first comprehensive bilingual edition of his work.
David Huerta is a WordFest Alumnus: 1998.
David Huerta appears in co-operation with Fondo Nacional paral la Cultura y las Artes of Mexico.
David Huerta (MEX) es autor de una veintena de libros de poesía y está considerado por la crítica como el mejor poeta mexicano de hoy en día. Gano el Premio Xavier Villaurrutia por su trayectoria profesional y su contribución a la literatura mexicana. Ha sido una de las figuras centrales de dos de las corrientes poéticas más influyentes de finales del siglo XX en Latinoamérica—el llamado movimiento neobarroco y el posmodernismo poético. Ha sido durante muchos años activista político y social, de hecho actualmente colabora como columnista político con el diario mexicano Proceso. También es profesor de literatura en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Antes de decir cualquiera de las grandes palabras es la primera edición bilingüe de su obra.
David Huerta participa gracias a la colaboración del Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes de México.
Events:
19 - ¡HOLA!
40 - Poetry Bash
55 - Poetry Cabaret
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 | | photo credit: Jason Ness | Dave Hugelschaffer (CAN) spent twenty years working in the forests of Alberta as a forest ranger, timber cruiser, firefighter and land planner providing the perfect bckground to set his adventure stories. In his Porter Cassel series, murder mystery meets forest firefighting adventure. One Careless Moment is the second in the series following Day Into Night. Set in Montana, Cassel is caught in a sudden burnover that claims the life of a firefighter, a fire he later learns was started by the hands of an arsonist. Hugelschafer currently lives in Edson, Alberta, and is working on the third Porter Cassel mystery.
Events:
18 - Alberta Bound: Wild Rose Writers
56 - Breaking the Barriers: Industry Insiders
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June Hutton (CAN) is a poet and award-winning short fiction author whose work has appeared in a number of literary magazines. Hutton has worked as a northern journalist and a teacher and has lived all over Canada, from Toronto to Whitehorse, where she returned to ride a two-man boat down the Teslin and Yukon rivers as research for her debut novel. Both a love story and social commentary, Underground follows an idealistic young Canadian soldier from the trenches of the Great War, through the depression, Canada’s north and through the Canadian soldier’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War.
Events:
44 - Uncharted Territories
59 - Through the Glass Darkly
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 | photo credit:
Nicole Dancel | John Irving (Can) is one of the best-known and best-loved authors of the English language.
WordFest presents John Irving, much-loved author of Cider House Rules and The World According to Garp, as he presents his twelfth and newest novel, Last Night in Twisted River at the Central Library, John Dutton Theatre.
John Irving will not be signing after the event, but Pages Books on Kensington will have a limited number of signed copies of Last Night in Twisted River for sale at the event.
Tuesday, October 21st
Venue: Calgary Public Library, John Dutton Theatre
Start: 7:00pm, Tickets: $20
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Mariatu Kamara (CAN) led a carefree childhood growing up in a rural village in Sierra Leone until the fateful day she was sent to fetch food from a nearby village and never returned. Armed rebels attacked, many no older than 12-year-old Mariatu. Miraculously, she survived. Now a college student in Toronto, Mariatu is a UNICEF Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. She was recently honored in New York City where she received a Voices of Courage award from the Women’s Refugee Commission. In The Bite of the Mango Mariatu shares her gripping, unforgettable story of immense courage, resilience and hope.
Events:
12 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Mariatu Kamara, Rukhsana Khan
22 - Bite of the Mango
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Rukhsana Khan (PAK/CAN) is an award-winning author and storyteller. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, she grew up in Dundas, Ontario, and now lives in Toronto. She is an active speaker and an expert on books with international and Muslim themes. She has presented at schools and communities across Canada and the U.S., as well as at the 2006 ALA Conference in New Orleans and the 2008 IBBY World Congress in Copenhagen. Her books tell tales of India, Persia and the Middle East. She brings two books to WordFest: A New Life explores the experience of settling into a new culture and a new school, and Wanting Mor is inspired by the true story of a young girl whose father remarries after the death of the girl’s mother. When her step-mother discovers that the girl is learning to read, she abandons the girl in a busy market in Kabul.
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Jani Krulc recently returned to Calgary after a four year stint in Montreal, where she was Associate Editor of Matrix Magazine. She brings back with her an MA in English and Creative Writing from Concordia University and a healthy appreciation for ironic footwear. Her chapbook, The Maison du Sexe, was published in 2007 by Delirium Press and her work has appeared in Nod Magazine and Headlight Anthology.
**Filling Station author
Events:
1 - Alberta Bound: Get Your Fill
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Dany Laferrière (CAN) is a social commentator, novelist, journalist, screenwriter and filmmaker. Laferrière fled Haiti when his friend, with whom he was collaborating on a story, was killed. He sought refuge in Montreal where he published his first novel, How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired. His popular films include Woodoo Taxi, Le gout des jeunes filles and Comment coonquerir L’Amerique en une nuit, the later of which he wrote and directed. Heading South transports the reader into the seedy back streets of 1970s Port au-Prince, Haiti rife with gambling, Voodoo priests, rappers, artists, lovers and friends who swap lovers like clothing.
Dany Laferrière is a WordFest Alumnus: 1997.
Dany Laferrière (CAN) s’est installé au Québec en 1976 et son premier roman, Comment faire l’amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer est paru en 1985. Il a publié une quinzaine de livres sous le titre «Une autobiographie américaine». Il reçoit en 2006 le prix du Gouverneur Général du Canada pour son album jeunesse, Je suis fou de Vava. Parallèlement à ses activités littéraires, il participe à l’adaptation cinématographique de ses romans et mène une carrière de journaliste et de chroniqueur. Au WordFest, il apportera son dernier ouvrage Je suis un écrivain japonais, ainsi que Heading South.
Events:
33 - Laferrière et Proulx
37 - Friday Night Showcase
49 - From Page to Film
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John Lathrop (CAN) has been an expatriate for much of his life. Following a four year enlistment in the Air Force, he attended university in Los Angeles and then spent time in the southern Philippines in the U. S. Peace Corps. This was followed by almost a decade and-a-half in the Middle East, primarily Saudi Arabia. He worked for government ministries, military contractors, government-owned industry and private businesses. Lathrop now calls Calgary home. He brings to WordFest his debut novel, The Desert Contract, a political thriller and insightful look at the current politics and business world of the Middle East.
Events:
18 - Alberta Bound: Wild Rose Writers
56 - Breaking the Barriers: Industry Leaders
59 - Through the Glass Darkly
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Joan London (AUS) is the award-winning author of two short story collections, Letter to Constantine and Sister Ships. She has twice won The Age Book of The Year Award for Fiction for Gilgamesh and for her story collection, Sister Ships. Gilgamesh was also a finalist for the New South Wales Premier's Christina Stead Prize, the Western Australian Premier's Award for Fiction and the Miles Franklin Literary Award. She brings to WordFest her most recent work The Good Parents, a tender and compelling tale of mother love and the harrowing moment when a daughter spreads her wings and vanishes from her parents' orbit.
Joan London is a WordFest Alumnus: 2003.
Joan London appears with the support of the Australian Arts Council.
Events:
37 - Friday Night Showcase
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Jeanette Lynes (CAN) has been a writer-in-residence at Saskatoon Public Library and Northern Lights College in Dawson Creek, B.C. as well as a Visiting Writer with the Women's Studies Department at Queen's University. She teaches at St. Francis Xavier University, co-edits The Antigonish Review. Lynes has published four collections of poetry including the recently released, The New Blue Distance, in which she distils Canada into poetry; curling, spring in Saskatoon and grape vines in Antigonish bind the country into the book. Her debut novel, The Factory Voice, is rife with the ambition, friendship and loyalty of four strong women at a mysterious military factory.
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Emily St. John Mandel (CAN/USA) studied at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and lived briefly in Montreal before relocating to New York. She maintains an extremely active online presence through Web 2.0 and blogging. Her lauded first novel, Last Night in Montreal, follows the character of Lilia through her compulsive travels while exploring the nature of obsession. Last Night in Montreal is a story of love, amnesia, compulsive travel, the nature of obsession and the depths and limits of family bonds. Her second novel is to be released in spring 2010.
Events:
8 - The Young, Bold and Restless
54 - Banff Distinguished Author Series
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 | photo credit: Véro
Boncompagni |
Sylvie Massicotte ((CAN) vit près de Montréal, et elle a beaucoup voyagé. Elle a reçu la Médaille de l’Association de la Renaissance française pour l’ensemble de son œuvre, le Grand Prix littéraire de Radio-Canada (catégorie Nouvelle) et en tant que parolière le Prix Platine Cité-Rock-Détente. Elle met aussi son écriture au service du cinéma, de la danse, et de la photographie. Elle anime des ateliers d’écriture pour les adultes et rencontre les jeunes régulièrement. Elle présentera au festival sa série Amé et sa série Pitchounette.
Events:
6 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: François Barcelo, Sylvie Massicotte
28 - Rendez-vous à Livres LaCoste
45 - Café Croissant et Sylvie Massicotte
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Joyce Maynard (USA) has been a reporter for the New York Times, a magazine journalist, radio commentator and syndicated columnist as well as the author of ten books, including To Die For, which was later adapted into a movie starring Nicole Kidman. Her best-selling memoir, At Home in the World, has been translated into nine languages. She appears regularly as a storyteller with The Moth in New York City. She brings to WordFest her latest novel, Labour Day, a beautiful, poignant tale of love, sex, adolescence and devastating treachery as seen through the eyes of a young teenage boy-and the man he later becomes.
Events:
37 - Friday Night Showcase
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 | photo credit: Suzanne
Hancock
| Colin McAdam (CAN) is an internationally acclaimed, prize winning author. He has written for Harper’s and The Walrus. His novel Some Great Thing won the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award and was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in the UK. He brings to WordFest Fall, which was chosen by Vogue magazine as a top ten read for 2009. It is a riveting story of two male roommates at a co-ed boarding school and the fall out that occurs when one friend’s girlfriend goes missing.
Colin McAdam is a WordFest Alumnus: 2004.
Events:
8 - The Young, Bold and Restless
13 - Wednesday Night Showcase
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 | photo credit: Becky
Parsons
| Shandi Mitchell (CAN) Shandi Mitchell (CAN) spent her childhood on a military base in the Prairies and now makes her home in Nova Scotia. She has been a producing partner in Emotion Pictures, where she collaborated on the critically acclaimed films The Hanging Garden and Beefcake. Her recent short film, Tell Me, appeared at festivals across Canada, including the Toronto International Film Festival. Mitchell is also a fiction writer and brings her debut novel, Under This Unbroken Sky, to WordFest this fall.
Events:
59 - Through the Glass Darkly
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 | photo credit: Barbara
Stoneham
| Lisa Moore (CAN) is the award-winning author of Degrees of Nakedness, Open, and Alligator. Open was nominated for the Giller Prize and won the Canadian Authors' Association Jubilee Prize for Short Fiction. Alligator was also nominated for the Giller Prize and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the Canadian Caribbean Region. Moore brings her latest book, February, to WordFest. It is the story of Helen O'Mara, one of those left behind when The Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a Valentine's Day storm. February is a profound, heart-stopping work from one of Canada’s most prominent writers.
John Ballem is proud to sponsor the appearance of Lisa Moore.
Events:
27 - Thursday Night Showcase
36 - Girls, Gossip and Cocktails
60 - Curtain Call
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 | | photo credit: Julie Wilson | Shani Mootoo (CAN) was born in Ireland, grew up in Trinidad and moved to Canada in the 1980s where she has lived since. Her acclaimed first novel, Cereus Blooms at Night, was published in 14 countries and was a finalist for the Giller Prize, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award. Her second novel, He Drown She in the Sea, was longlisted for the IMPAC Award. Mootoo brings her third novel, Valmiki’s Daughter, to WordFest. The story circles around an upper class Trinidadian family and their painful secrets that threaten to shake the foundations of their delicate world.
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 | crédito de foto: Óscar
Calderón | Verónica Murguía (MEX) is a freelance writer, columnist and teacher of writers in Mexico City. She has written and illustrated many books for children including her latest, Lo que sí y lo que no. Her first book, Historia y aventuras de Taté el mago y Clarisel la Cuentera, won the Juan de la Cabada Prize for children’s literature. Her writing styles and audiences vary – she also writes fantasy for teens and adults and has written a collection of short stories for adults, El ángel de Nicolás.
Verónica Murguía is a WordFest Alumna: 1998.
Verónica Murguía appears in co-operation with Fondo Nacional paral la cultura of Mexico.
Verónica Murguía (México) es escritora independiente, columnista y profesora de escritores en la Ciudad de México. Entre los libros infantiles que ha escrito e ilustrado el más reciente se denomina Lo que sí y lo que no. Su primer libro, Historia y aventuras de Taté el mago y Clarisel la Cuentera, fue distinguido con el premio Juan de la Cabada de literatura infantil. Verónica Murguía utiliza una variedad de estilos y sus novelas se sitúan generalmente en otras culturas y otras épocas. Su obra comprende también libros de fantasía para adolescentes y adultos, y una colección de cuentos cortos para adultos titulada El ángel de Nicolás.
Verónica Murguía participa con la cooperación del Fondo Nacional para la cultura de México.
Events:
13 - Wednesday Night Showcase
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 | | Photo credit: Dave Roels |
Canada’s most distinctive commentator presents his fearless and thought-provoking views on a head-spinning range of subjects, from doubts about Obama to utter belief in Don Cherry, from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s outstanding oeuvre to—well, Pamela Anderson in his latest book, Canada and Other Matters of Opinion. |
Billeh Nickerson (CAN) is the author of The Asthmatic Glassblower, a poetry collection nominated for the Publishing Triangle Poetry Prize. He is also the author of the humorous essay collection Let Me Kiss it Better: Elixirs for the Not So Straight and Narrow, and co-editor of Seminal: The Anthology of Canada's Gay Male Poets with John Barton. To WordFest, Nickerson brings the hilarious and illuminating poems in his new poetry collection, McPoems, based on his years working at a particularly well-known fast-food restaurant. His poetry paints a vivid picture of life behind the counter and will resonate with anyone who has ever held a fast-food job.
Events:
29 - Word of Mouth
55 - Poetry Cabaret
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Hal Niedzviecki (CAN) inaugurated the WordFest blog and is currently featured on Oprah’s 2009 summer Reading List for his latest work, The Peep Diaries: How We're Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbours. He is the founder of Broken Pencil magazine and the author of Hello I'm Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity and We Want Some Too: Underground Desire and the Reinvention of Mass Culture. Called the "guru of independent/alternative creative action" by The Toronto Star, Niedzviecki has published numerous works of social commentary and fiction and his writing has appeared in periodicals and newspapers across North America.
Hal Niedzviecki is a WordFest Alumnus: 2007.
Events:
9 - For a Nickel I Will...
29 - Word of Mouth
58 - Dine and Spill
61 - From Pop to Peep
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 | photo credit: Annie-Eve
Dumontier
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Alexis O'Hara (CAN) ) is a Montreal-based artist and performer. She has produced a book of poetry entitled (more than) Filthy Lies, an album, In Abulia, and several mini CDs. Her practice explores allegories of the human voice through spoken word, video, sound art and installation. Her eclectic performances and concerts have been presented in a variety of contexts, in festivals around the world. In Abulia, her debut album, is a sonic joyride that runs the gamut from sweet electro-madness to abrasive robot poetry.
Events:
17 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Alexis O'Hara
39 - Wicked Words
48 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Alexis O'Hara
55 - Poetry Cabaret
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Chris Pannell (CAN) moved from Toronto to Hamilton in 1988, where he soon founded the New Writing Workshop at Hamilton Artists Inc. In 1997, he joined the Watershed books publishing collective based in Toronto, which included A.F. Moritz and Allan Briesmaster among others. He has been published in several anthologies and lliterary magazines across Canada and internationally. To WordFest he brings Drive, his fourth collection of poetry, in which Pannell looks into the rearview mirror of his bus—and his life—to celebrate the humanity of his passengers and himself.
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 | photo credit: Angus Rowe
MacPherson
| Roland Pemberton (CAN) is also known as Cadence Weapon and recently caused a stir as he was named Edmonton’s third Poet Laureate at the age of 23. A poet, musician, record producer, dj and writer, Pemberton is an internationally established hip hop artist with numerous high profile awards to his credit. Breaking Kayfabe, his debut album, and Afterparty Babies were both nominated for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize. His music video Sharks was nominated for a MuchMusic Video Award and Cadence Weapon won the Canadian Independent Music Award for best urban artist/group in 2007. Pemberton also writes a music column for one of Edmonton’s alternative weeklies.
Roland Pemberton appears courtesy of Upper Class Recordings and with the support of The Edmonton Arts Council.
Events:
29 - Word of Mouth
39 - Wicked Words
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 | photo credit: Linda
Pilarski | Patrick Pilarski is the co-editor of DailyHaiku, an international journal of contemporary English-language haiku, and associate poetry editor for its new sister publication, DailyHaiga. His first full-length collection, Huge Blue, will be released Sept. 2009 by Leaf Press, and he is the author of one chapbook of experimental haiku and haibun: Five Weeks (2007). Patrick's work has appeared and is forthcoming in journals and anthologies across North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan, recently including PRISM international, The Antigonish Review, Literary Review of Canada, Carousel, The New Quarterly, Modern Haiku, and on CBC Radio One.
**Filling Station Author
Events:
2 - Alberta Bound: Get Your Fill
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David Poulsen (CAN) has been a rodeo competitor and rodeo clown, rock singer, high school football coach, stage and film actor and college English instructor. In addition to this, David’s eighteen years behind the microphone at rodeos throughout North America have earned him three appearances at the Canadian Finals Rodeo and eleven consecutive stints at the Calgary Stampede. Poulsen raises quarter horses and Texas longhorn cattle on a ranch in the foothills west of Claresholm, Alberta, where he is the coordinator of Project READ, the community’s literacy program. He returns to WordFest with his recent books Numbers and Shivers and Shakes.
David Poulsen is a WordFest Alumnus: 1996 and 2006.
Read more about David Poulsen and what he's bringing to the Festival on BookRapport.com.
Events:
5 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: David Poulsen, Matthew Skelton
14 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Natale Ghent, David Poulsen
30 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Rukhsana Khan, David Poulsen
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Monique Proulx (CAN) vit à Montréal et dans les Laurentides. Elle est romancière, nouvelliste, et scénariste pour le cinéma. Dans ces trois domaines, son travail a été salué par la critique et le public. La plupart de ses livres ont été traduits en anglais, deux de ses romans ont été adaptés pour le cinéma. Son recueil de nouvelles Les Aurores montréales est diffusé dans une dizaine de pays. Dans son dernier roman Champagne (en anglais, Wildlives), Monique Proulx fait surgir la magie d'un royaume épargné par le développement et se demande si la beauté peut sauver le monde.
Monique Proulx (CAN) is a Montréaler, a novelist and a writer of short stories and screenplays. She is one of the most prominent authors on the Québec literary scene, having won numerous prizes for her work. Awards for the screen adaptation of The Invisible Man at the Window include the prestigious Québec-Paris Prize and The Sex of the Stars Best Canadian Film at the International Film Festival of Montréal. Her collection of short stories Aurora Montrealis (in French, Les Aurores montréales) has been published in a dozen countries. Her latest book Wildlives (in French, Champagne) is a tender and uplifting novel about the nature of beauty and its infinite power to heal.
Monique Proulx is a WordFest Alumna: 1997 and 2003.
Events:
27 - Thursday Night Showcase
33 - Laferrière et Proulx
38 - Rendez-vous à Livres LaCoste
49 - From Page to Film
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 | photo credit: Marie-Reine
Mattera
| Kathy Reichs (USA) like her character, Temperance Brennan, is a forensic anthropologist. She is one of only eighty-two forensic anthropologists ever certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. Kathy Reichs has brought her own dramatic work experience to her mesmerizing forensic thrillers. Her first book, Déjà Dead, catapulted her to fame when it became a New York Times bestseller and won the 1997 Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Her subsequent books also became international bestsellers. Reichs is also a producer of the popular FOX TV series, Bones, which is based on her work and her novels. 206 Bones is Reichs’ latest work.
Kathy Reichs is a WordFest Alumna: 2000.
Events:
51 - Dead On with Kathy Reichs
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 | photo credit: Barbara
Stoneham
| Noah Richler (Can) was raised in Montréal and London, England, and was a prize-winning producer and host of documentaries and features for BBC Radio for fourteen years. He returned to Canada in 1998 to join the National Post, becoming its first books editor and later a literary columnist. He has contributed to numerous publications in both Britain and Canada and hosted CBC’s Richler on Radio. He showcased his book This is My Country, What’s Yours? at WordFest in 2006. WordFest welcomes Richler back as the 2009 blogger.
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Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt (FRA) est dramaturge, scénariste et auteur de nouvelles. Il a reçu en 2001 le Grand Prix du théâtre de l’Académie Française pour l’ensemble de son œuvre. Il est l’un des plus grands auteurs européens de best-sellers. Ses ouvrages incluent Oscar et la dame en rose (bientôt en film), L’évangile selon Pilate et Ma vie avec Mozart. L’année 2007 a marqué ses débuts en tant que scénariste et réalisateur avec le film Odette Toulemonde. Ses livres ont été traduits dans une quarantaine de langues et ses pièces de théâtre sont jouées régulièrement dans le monde entier. Au WordFest, il présentera Odette Toulemonde et autres histoires.
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt (FRA) is a playwright, screenwriter, author of short stories and one of Europe’s most popular and best-selling authors. He was awarded the French Academy’s Grand Prix du Théâtre in 2001. His books include Oscar and the Lady in Pink, The Gospel According to Pilate, My Life with Mozart and Little Conjugal Crimes. In 2007, Schmitt made his debut as screenwriter and director with the release of the film Odette Toulemonde. At WordFest, he will present his latest book The Most Beautiful Book in the World: Eight Novellas.
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt appears with the support of the Consulate General of France in Vancouver.
Events:
28 - Rendez-vous à Livres La Coste
49 - From Page to Film
60 - Curtain Call
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Gregory Scofield (CAN) is a Métis writer, activist and community worker whose maternal ancestry can be traced back five generations to Kinesota, Manitoba and the Red River Settlement. In 2007, Bravo! and The May Street Group premiered Singing Home the Bones: A Poet Becomes Himself, a documentary chronicling Scofield’s life. He has published five highly praised books of poetry and a memoir. He has received the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Canadian Authors Association’s most promising young writer award. This year, Scofield will bring to the festival Kipocihkân: Poems New and Selected and a new edition of Love Medicine and One Song.
Gregory Scofield is a WordFest Alumnus: 1997, 1999 and 2005.
Events:
40 - Poetry Bash
55 - Poetry Cabaret
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 | | photo credit: Sandy Pereira | Seth (CAN) ) is the cartoonist behind the series Palookaville and the novels, It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken, Wimbledon Green, Bannock, Beans and Black Tea, Clyde Fans, Vernacular Drawings and George Sprott: (1894-1975) which was serialized in the New York Times Magazine. Seth has exhibited throughout the world and his work frequently appears inside and on the cover of the New Yorker. Seth presents a greatly expanded and "re-mastered" version of George Sprott: (1894-1975) in which we will come to know George, piece by piece, in a series of "interviews", flashbacks and personal reminiscences.
Seth is a WordFest Alumnus: 2001.
Events:
53 - Graphic Language
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Matthew Skelton (UK) has been referred to as a compulsively readable author. Skelton was born in the UK, but spent most of his childhood in Canada. In 2002, he won Richard and Judy's short story competition and after a fierce bidding war, Puffin won the rights to publish his first novel Endymion Spring in 2006, which he spresented at WordFest. It received huge critical acclaim and was a New York Times bestseller as well as a massive hit in Canada. The Story of Cirrus Flux is a magical, historical novel involving a fire-breathing bird, an orphan boy and a dangerous power.
Matthew Skelton is a WordFest Alumnus: 2007
Events:
5 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: David Poulsen, Matthew Skelton
23 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Matthew Skelton, Arthur Slade
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Arthur Slade (CAN) is the author of Dust, a national bestseller and winner of the 2001 Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature, the 2001 Saskatchewan Book Award and the 2002 Mr. Christie’s Book Award. His novel Tribes was a Canadian Library Association Young Adult Honour Book and was nominated for five other literary prizes. Megiddo’s Shadow was the 2006 Saskatchewan Book Award recipient and was nominated for OLA’s Red Maple Reader’s Choice Award. Slade is also the author of Monsterology, Villainology and the Canadian Chills series. Slade returns to WordFest with his new book, The Hunchback Assignments, an engaging steampunk tale about a hunchbacked orphan with the strange ability to shape-shift.
Arthur Slade is a WordFest Alumnus: 2002, 2005 and 2008.
Events:
7 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Don Calame, Arthur Slade
23 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Matthew Skelton, Arthur Slade
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 | photo credit: Gordon
Trice
| David Small (USA) is a renowned children’s writer and illustrator whose drawings have appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He has illustrated more than 40 picture books, and has won many of the top awards accorded to illustration, including the Christopher Award and the Randolph Caldecott Medal. He presents Stitches: A Memoir, a gripping and redemptive true story of coming-of-age in a troubled family in 1950s Detroit, centering on the aftershocks of a supposedly harmless operation that left him, at the age of 14, a virtual mute for 10 years.
Valard is proud to sponsor the appearance of David Small.
Events:
53 - Graphic Language
56 - Break the Barriers: Industry Insiders
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Karen Solie (CAN) is regarded as one of Canada's leading poets. Her first collection of poems, Short Haul Engine, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and its awards include both the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her second, Modern and Normal, was also highly acclaimed and her poetry, fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous North American journals. In 2007 Solie was one of the judges for the Griffin Poetry Prize. Her newest book of poetry, Pigeon, delves into the intersection of technology and the environment through explorations of violence, bad luck, fate, creeping catastrophe, love and danger.
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 | photo credit: Randall
Edwards
| Thomas Trofimuk (CAN) is an Edmonton writer, editor and speech-writer. He won the Georges Bugnet Award for his first novel, The 52nd Poem. Trofimuk's critically acclaimed second novel, Doubting Yourself to the Bone was a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year and was showcased at WordFest in 2006. He is the founding father of Edmonton’s Raving Poets movement. His poems and short stories have been published in literary magazines and journals across Canada and broadcast on CBC radio. He brings his stunning third novel, Waiting for Columbus, a novel about truth, loss, love and hope to the Festival.
Thomas Trofimuk is a WordFest Alumnus: 2006.
Events:
52 - Afternoon Delight
57 - Through the Glass Lightly
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 | | photo credit: Michel Berda | Eloy Urroz (MEX) completed his Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Literature at UCLA. A poet, novelist and essay writer, he has been Professor of Latin American Literature in several universities within the United States. He is currently Associate Professor at The Citadel College, in Charleston, South Carolina. He is one of five authors to pen the Crack Manifesto, a statement dedicated to breaking Latin American literary tradition. Among other books, he has published a book on James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence and six novels, among which, are: The Crestfallen Souls, A Century Behind Me, Friction and The Obstacles, which he presents at WordFest.
Eloy Urroz appears in co-operation with Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes of Mexico.
Eloy Urroz (MEX) es doctor en literatura hispánica por en la Universidad de California, en Los Ángeles. Poeta, novelista y ensayista, ha enseñado literatura latinoamericana en numerosas universidades de los Estados Unidos. Actualmente es profesor asociado en Citadel College, en Charleston, Carolina del Sur. Es uno de los cinco escritores que firmaron el Manifiesto del Crack, cuya intención consistía en romper con la tradición literaria latinoamericana anterior. Entre algunas de sus obras, cabe destacar su libro sobre James Joyce y D.H. Lawrence, y las novelas: Las almas abatidas, Un siglo detrás de mí, Fricción y Las rémoras, que presenta en WordFest.
Eloy Urroz participa gracias a la colaboración del Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes de México.
Events:
19 - ¡HOLA!
59 - Through the Glass Darkly
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Samantha Warwick was born in Montreal. She received her MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia in 2003. Her work has been broadcast on CBC Radio and has appeared in various literary magazines including Geist, Event, Room and echolocation. Samantha has been the Southern Alberta Program Coordinator for the Writers Guild of Alberta since 2005. Her first novel, Sage Island—a historical fiction surrounding the real-life Wrigley Ocean Marathon of 1927—was published by Brindle and Glass and released in September 2008. Sage Island was most recently shortlisted for the 2009 Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction.
**Filling Station Author.
Events:
2 - Alberta Bound: Get Your Fill
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Tom Wayman (CAN) has published more than a dozen collections of poems including High Speed Through Shoaling Water and the 2003 Governor General’s Award nominated volume of poems My Father’s Cup. His shortfiction, Boundary Country, was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award. He has also edited six poetry anthologies on various themes and has published two collections of cultural and critical essays. He has served as the writer-in-residence at the Universities of Toronto, Alberta and Windsor, among others, and is currently a professor at the University of Calgary. He brings to WordFest his first novel, Woodstock Rising, a coming-of-age tale riddled with free love, rock anthems and revolution.
Tom Wayman is a WordFest Alumnus: 2007.
Events:
27 - Thursday Night Showcase
57 - Thought the Glass Lightly
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Zoe Whittall (CAN) is a critically acclaimed fiction writer and poet. Her debut novel Bottle Rocket Hearts was a Globe and Mail “Top 100” book and a Quill & Quire Best Book. In 2007, she was named Emerging Author of the Year by Now Magazine, and the recipient of the second annual Dayne Ogilvie Grant for Best Emerging Gay Writer in Canada. She has published three books of poetry and four books. She presents Holding Still for As Long As Possible, a portrait of twenty somethings who grew up with anti-anxiety meds, SARS and Hurricane Katrina, and Precordial Thump, a collection of poetry.
Events:
8 - The Young, Bold and Restless
36 - Girls, Gossip and Cocktails
52 - Afternoon Delight
55 - Poetry Cabaret
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Tim Wynne-Jones (CAN) has written thirty books and has twice won the Governor General’s Award for children’s literature. His work has been translated into ten languages. The Boy in the Burning House won the Edgar Award of the Mystery Writers of America, the Arthur Ellis Award of the Crime Writers of Canada and was short-listed for the Guardian Award in Great Britain. The Maestro was short-listed for the Guardian Prize. He brings Rex Zero, The Great Pretender, the third in the Rex Zero series, Pounce de Leon and The Uninvited to WordFest.
Tim Wynne-Jones is a WordFest Alumnus: 1999 and 2005.
Events:
11 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Cary Fagan, Tim Wynne-Jones
16 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Elaine Arsenault, Tim Wynne-Jones
21 - First Calgary Savings Book Rapport: Natale Ghent, Tim Wynne-Jones
46 - A Morning with Tim Wynne-Jones
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Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (CAN) is both Canadian author and iconic artist. He is known for his distinctive Haida Manga style which blends Indigenous art traditions with the style of Asian graphic novels known as manga or manhwa. Yahgulanaas’s books include Flight of the Hummingbird, A Tale of Two Shamans, The Last Voyage of the Black Ship and Hachidori, a bestseller in Japan. An exhibit of his large-scale works on paper and sculpture are opening at The Glenbow Museum during WordFest. To the Festival, Yahgulanaas will bring his latest graphic novel and art piece, Red.
Douglas and McIntyre is proud to sponsor the appearance of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas.
Events:
35 - Haida meets Manga
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Authors
