Name: Welcome! Opening Ceremony & Keynote
Start: 2026-08-14T10:00:00-0600
End: 2026-08-14T11:45:00-0600

A Festival for Writers, Readers, and Fans

Friday August 14, 2026 10:00am - 11:45am MDT

Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 4+6

It's the opening ceremonies! Join us for this fast and furious kick off to When Words Collide 2026.

Our welcome event includes a land acknowledgement and drum blessing with Walter Wirch, some short speeches(yay, speeches) and a White Hat Ceremony from Tourism Calgary - extending that Cowtown hospitality to our special guests.

Soon after is a very special Zoom'd in Writers on Writers with celebrated fantasy author Terry Brooks, and his successor, Delilah S. Dawson.

Fantasy super-legend Terry Brooks joins When Words Collide for a very special online In-Convo. In March 2025, Terry Brooks semi-retired, passing the writing torch to American fantasy and sci-fi author Delilah Dawson to carry on the beloved Shannara series. Hear how they are putting the “success” in “succession planning.”

Featuring a welcome from
>>>Alexandra Writers Centre Society (AWCS) Exectutive Director Robin Van Eck
>>>AWCS Board Chair/WWC Committee Chair Sarah Johnson
>>>AWCS Program Director Community Engagement/ WWC Committee Member Special Events, Precious de Leon
>>>WWC Festival Director Nicole Zylstra

And then it's off to the races! See you there :)

Presenters

Delilah S. Dawson

Delilah S. Dawson is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling and Stoker Award winning author of over 40 books for all ages, as well as dozens of comics and short stories. As Isla Jewell, she writes the Arcadia Falls series of witchy Romance, and as Lila Bowen, she writes the... Read More →

Kevin McDonald

Comedian, actor, writer and director Kevin McDonald founded The Kids in the Hall with friend Dave Foley, after they met in Toronto at Second City, and the television series ran from 1988-1995.
In the troupe's television series and stage shows, he portrays several popular recurring... Read More →

Andrew Buckley

Andrew Buckley is an accomplished storyteller, educator, and keynote speaker with over two decades of experience in creative writing, storytelling, and marketing. As a published author, Andrew favours playing in the fantasy and paranormal sandboxes and has a terrible habit of writing... Read More →

Bianca Marais

Bianca Marais is the author of the bestselling The Witches of Moonshyne Manor, as well as the beloved Hum If You Don't Know the Words and If You Want to Make God Laugh, and the Audible Original, The Prynne Viper.

Her latest novel, A Most Puzzling Murder, was released on the 10th o

... Read More →

Lily Chu

Lily Chu loves ordering the second-cheapest wine, wearing perfume all the time, and staying up far too late with a good book.

Four of her books have been released in audio as Audible Originals, performed by Phillipa Soo (The Stand-In, The Comeback, The Takedown, and Drop Dead) and John Cho (Drop Dead). Lily’s best-selling stories are critically acclaimed and have spent multiple weeks at number one in

... Read More →

Craig DiLouie

Craig DiLouie is a USA Today bestselling author of horror and sci-fi fiction. Notable works include The Summer Fun Massacre, My Ex The Antichrist, How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive, Episode Thirteen, The Children of Red Peak, Our War, and One of Us, all published by Orbit/Hachette... Read More →

Gemma Files

Previously a film critic, journalist and teacher, Gemma Files has been an award-winning horror author since 1999.

She's best-known for her novel Experimental Film (Open Road Media) and her collections of short fiction, including the Bram Stoker Award-winning In That Endlessness, Our End and Blood From the Air (both from Grimscribe). Her next book, Little Horn: Stories, is out as of October... Read More →

Danny Ramadan

Danny Ramadan is a Syrian-Canadian author and LGBTQ+ refugees’ advocate.

His memoir Crooked Teeth received raving reviews and was nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction. His latest novel, The Foghorn Echoes, won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction and

... Read More →

Amanda Leduc

Amanda Leduc is a writer, speaker, and disability rights advocate.

She is the author of the non-fiction book Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space (Coach House Books, 2020), which was shortlisted for the 2020 Governor General’s Award in Nonfiction, and t

... Read More →

Mira Landry

Podcaster/Facilitator

After three years working at a boutique literary agency, Mira Landry now presents workshops on publishing and craft across the continent and co-hosts two literary craft podcasts, Writers Who Read (Est. 2023) and The Authors' Studio (launching August 2026). She has a bachelors... Read More →

Carly Watters

Literary Agent, P.S. Literary

Carly Watters began her publishing career in 2009 in London at the Darley Anderson Literary, TV and Film Agency. She has a BA in English Literature from Queen’s University, a MA in Publishing Studies from City St. George’s at the University of London, and is a graduate of Harvard... Read More →

Cecilia "CeCe" Lyra

Literary Agent, Wendy Sherman Associates

Cecilia “CeCe” Lyra is a literary agent at Wendy Sherman Associates representing a range of fiction and nonfiction authors writing for the adult market.

Born and raised bilingual and bicultural in Rio de Janeiro, CeCe is passionate about representing under and misrepresented... Read More →

Terry Brooks

Born in Illinois in 1944, Terry Brooks spent a great deal of his childhood and early adulthood dreaming up stories in and around Sinnissippi Park, the very same setting for Running with the Demon. He received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College, where he majored in Eng... Read More →

Friday August 14, 2026 10:00am - 11:45am MDT
Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 4+6 700 Centre St S, Calgary, AB T2G 5P6, Canada

Keynote

When Words Collide 2026