'It was exciting . . . but not a lot of sleep': Thirty years later, founding artistic director looks back on 'crazy' first year of Wordfest
Anne Green sought out advice from a number of people while helping organize and run the first Wordfest 30 years ago.
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Green had a background in performing arts and a knack for organizing events, although she had never worked directly in literary arts. She had founded Edmonton's Theatre 3 in 1970 and had spent nine years in Ottawa working for the Canada Council for the Arts. There was certainly support for a new literary festival. Modelled after the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, there was a 12-person steering committee. There was involvement from the founding community partners, which included the Banff Centre, Calgary Public Library, Mount Royal University, and the Writers' Guild of Alberta. Green had plenty of writer friends to confer with and Calgarians whom she knew who had a background in business or were on national boards of directors. So, advisors were not in short supply.
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Still, some were more memorable than others.
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The first event established itself as a serious literary enterprise from the get-go. Wayson Choy, Lorna Crozier, Tomson Highway, Joy Fielding, Patrick Lane, Paul Quarrington and Guy Vanderhaeghe all showed up, as did CBC's Vicki Gabereau, Stuart McLean, Bill Richardson and Arthur Black. But it was scoring that first headliner, CanLit royalty Margaret Atwood, that was the major coup. This would not be a festival with humble beginnings.
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'It was pretty amazing,' Green says. 'She was so generous. She was and still is a serious trooper. I remember there was a little coffee shop on one side of the Uptown (Theatre) that served amazing coffee. Sitting there with her, she gave me advice that really saw me through the 15 years of the festival. She told me stuff that I kept with me all those years on how to treat authors, what they expected, what the stereotypes were and what was true about that and what wasn't true of that.'
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The festival launched in October 1996, with events in Calgary and Banff. The Calgary events were held at the old Uptown Theatre downtown. It was a bit of a blur for Green, who would stay on as artistic director for Wordfest's first 15 years.
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'It was just crazy,' she says. 'It was unbelievable that we had managed to do this. It was exciting… but not a lot of sleep.'
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It was such a success that Year 2 saw an equally stellar lineup. Irish-lit superstar Roddy Doyle made his first appearance, despite not having a book to promote at the time. Green had managed to find his office number in Ireland and cold-called him with an invite. That was also the year that legendary Canadian short-story legend Mavis Gallant came from France. Wordfest's fax machine was at Green's home, and Gallant only communicated via fax, so Green remembers occasionally receiving missives from the formidable expat at 4 a.m. Gallant attended some events in Banff and became infamously disgusted by the elk roaming through town. She claimed a few had tried to run her off the sidewalk.
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