Jessica Westhead

WordFest, the Banff-Calgary international writers festival, kicks off today, and runs until Oct. 16. For those who can’t make it in person, an online radio production of Jessica Westhead’s short story “Community,” from her 2011 collection And Also Sharks (Cormorant Books), is available for streaming or download.

Other festival highlights include derek beaulieu’s Prose of the Trans-Canada, a 20-metre-tall poem that illuminates the Calgary Tower, and Angela Silver’s series of poems, which appears on billboards around the city.