Author of the article: Eric Volmers Publishing date: Jun 03, 2021 • 2 hours ago • 5 minute read • Shelley Youngblut, CEO of Wordfest, with her dog Clover. Photo by Heather Saitz. jpg Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Article content Roughly a year before the pandemic hit, Shelley Youngblut met with book publishers in Toronto and floated what seemed like a radical idea at the time. The CEO of Wordfest was interested in securing an appearance by British author Hilary Mantel, a two-time Booker Prize winner. She had just wrapped up her historical-fiction Wolf Hall trilogy about the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell with 2020’s The Mirror and the Light. Unfortunately, Mantel also had little interest in travelling extensively for a book tour, which meant Calgary was probably out of the question.