Wordfest originated as an idea conceived by Donald Stein, then associate director of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, who in 1996 envisioned the coordination of a southern Albertan writers' festival. He contacted Darlene Quaife, then president of the Writer's Guild of Alberta, and Peter Oliva, then owner of Pages Books on Kensington in Calgary, and together the three "assembled a team that reads like an honour roll of Calgary's literary community at the time" including booksellers, writers, a "Calgary Herald" books editor, and representatives from the Calgary Public Library and CBC Radio, among others. With Anne Green as festival producer, Wordfest's first festival featured 50 authors and two dozen events over the course of four days.