Loading…
A Festival for Writers, Readers, and Fans
Saturday August 15, 2026 3:00pm - 4:15pm MDT
Ben Zalkind will facilitate this session with Kirti Bhadresa [and others] that will offer a primer on how authors use fiction as an incubator of political imagination. Storytelling has long been a tool of political awareness and change. Writers articulate the political discontent of our time, expose and tear down unjust power structures through our art. Readers access otherwise-silenced stories through the books they read. This panel will excavate literature’s rich political terrain, explore how ideas take shape and how unseen stories can be brought into the mainstream through fiction. Bring your fire and your curiosity for this rousing talk that promises to bring empowerment and hope! Let’s put our imaginations to work! The world needs our voices now more than ever.
Moderators
avatar for Ben Zalkind

Ben Zalkind

Author
Ben Zalkind is a writer living in Calgary. His debut novel, Honeydew, was published by Radiant Press in October 2025. In an adventurous past life, Ben made a spirited, but ultimately futile, effort to avoid STEM, which led to graduate degrees in literature and psychology and well-meaning... Read More →
Presenters
avatar for Amanda Leduc

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 →
avatar for Ann Cavlovic

Ann Cavlovic

Author
Count On Me is Ann Cavlovic’s debut novel (Guernica Editions, 2025). Her fiction and creative non-fiction have appeared in CBC, Event, The Fiddlehead, The Globe and Mail, Grain, Little Bird Stories, PRISM international, Room, SubTerrain, The Anthology This Place a Stranger (Caitlin Press), and elsewhere. Ann lives in the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation -- the Outaouais region of Western Quebec, just outside of Ottawa. Find out more at: anncavlovic.com... Read More →
avatar for Kirti Bhadresa

Kirti Bhadresa

Author
Kirti Bhadresa (she/her) lives in Calgary, Alberta on Treaty 7 territory. Kirti has fiction and non-fiction writing in many publications including The Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire and Room Magazine. Her first book, a short story collection entitled An Astonishment of Stars was published... Read More →
Saturday August 15, 2026 3:00pm - 4:15pm MDT
Hyatt Regency Calgary - Doll

Sign up or log in to save this to your schedule, view media, leave feedback and see who's attending!

Share Modal

Share this link via

Or copy link