Copy

Anticipation

Project Bookmark Canada is pleased to be part of Kingston WritersFest’s September 27 – October 1 weekend of activities, announced on June 29. Merilyn Simonds’ The Convict Lover will receive recognition with the City of Kingston’s second Bookmark and our 18th installation in a national series of Canada’s sites and stories. All are invited to attend the unveiling of the Bookmark on Saturday, September 30, 11am – 12pm, on Church Street (Garrigan Park). Following the launch, join the author on a Convict Lover literary tour with readings through Portsmouth Village. Thanks are extended to Kingston WritersFest, City of Kingston and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
 
Build THE CONVICT LOVER Bookmark

Celebration

Founder Miranda Hill was celebrated at a party in her honour at the home of Board President Don Oravec and Jim Harper. Congratulations on your visionary arts leadership in Canada, and sharing your vision of a Canadian Literary Trail. Here’s to the next decade of trailblazing Bookmarks, coast to coast to coast!

Visiting Bookmarks 1-17

In Vancouver? Visit Wayson Choy’s Jade Peony Bookmark in Chinatown. Grace (our volunteer from Toronto’s Bishop Strachan School) and her family did just that and took this great panoramic photo of the Bookmark. Send us your pictures, too! Let us know about your experience at any of our Bookmarks across the country, and send your email to info@projectbookmarkcanada.ca
 
Visit the Bookmarks

Thank you to the Toronto Arts Council!

The Toronto Arts Council has awarded us with a grant to go toward the development of a new Bookmark for the city — its fifth! — for a passage from Dionne Brand’s Love Enough, for a scene set in South Parkdale. Brand is one of this nation’s most acclaimed, accomplished and cherished writers. Thank you, TAC! Stay tuned for news about this monument and its fundraising initiatives.
Photo by Jason Chow
 

Our Volunteers

Heritage Toronto Award Nomination

Heritage Toronto has honoured Project Bookmark Canada as one of its nine Community Heritage nominees, to be announced at a special awards event on October 23, 2017, at the Carlu, Toronto. Since 1974, the Heritage Toronto Awards have showcased extraordinary contributions to the conservation and promotion of Toronto's heritage, and honoured individuals, groups and organizations for their efforts. Our current Toronto Bookmarks are for authors Michael Ondaatje (In the Skin of a Lion, Bloor Street Viaduct), Anne Michaels (Fugitive Pieces, College and Manning), Dennis Lee (The Cat and the Wizard, Casa Loma) and Ken Babstock ("Essentialist," St. George's Subway Station), with more in development! We are grateful for this honour and to be in such fine company with our fellow nominees. Visit the Heritage Toronto website for more info, and to buy your tickets should you be able to join us at this event.

Calgary Reading Circle

Calgary has a new Reading Circle led by the entirely generous and wonderful Shaun Hunter. She personally welcomed Project Bookmark’s Laurie Murphy with a literary tour of the City of Calgary, including Wordfest Headquarters, the Book Shelf bookstore, the University of Calgary, downtown, and the east side. She also provided her expertise on fiction and poetry writers who have imagined their scenes in the city (Writing the City: Calgary Through the Eyes of Writers). Thank you, Shaun!

Shaun Hunter, Laurie Murphy and Shelley Youngblut at Wordfest, Memorial Library. Photo by Rita Sirignano

Board Member Hughena Matheson speaks about Bookmark with the MP for Burlington and Minister of Democratic institutions Karina Gould.

Hughena Matheson and Minister Karina Gould. Photo by Valerie Sawyer.

Thank you for your submission of passages online and through our Reading Circles. They will be reviewed, with passages that come to us from our Reading Circles and other researchers and volunteers, by the National Bookmark Advisory Committee members in July and January of each year. They, in turn, recommend passages to the Board for development.
Suggest a Bookmark

Message from the President

It is really exciting to be involved with Project Bookmark Canada. We have achieved much in the first ten years of our official existence and we have much to look forward to achieving in the coming years.

This month I am exploring cities on the east coast as part of a joint Canada-United States tour and while in Halifax I will be visiting the site of the upcoming bookmark celebrating Hugh MacLennan's novel, Barometer Rising. I just finished rereading the book in anticipation of my visit and I can say with certainty that this is an important book to commemorate and an iconic Canadian writer to celebrate. Barometer Rising captures a stunning moment in Canadian history and humanizes it for readers. Ultimately the triumph of the human spirit, which Mr. MacLennan captures in the book, inspires!

In August I will be visiting Kingston to see the site of our next bookmark for Merilyn Simonds book The Convict Lover. I read this book several years ago and was blown away by Merilyn's imaginative creation. Imagine finding a cache of letters in an attic, reading them, and then creating a written dialogue using the letters between a convict in the Kingston Penitentiary and a young woman who sees him through the fence.

As always with Project Bookmark Canada we are tirelessly raising money to continue our work of creating a literary trail from coast to coast to coast.

With regard to the next two bookmarks, I recommend either or both of these books be added to your summer reading list pile and to consider making a donation to ensure we break ground on these important bookmarks in 2017. Also consider marking your calendars for Kingston on September 30th, and for Halifax on December 2nd, 2017. If you will be in Halifax and/or Kingston on those days I hope you will join our dedicated reading circle members, volunteers, and Executive Director Laurie Murphy, for the ceremony installing Bookmarks number 18 and 19!

Wishing you all a great summer!

Don Oravec
President of the Board, Project Bookmark Canada
 

Help Us Blaze the CanLit Trail!
Forward this email to a friend!

Copyright © 2017 Project Bookmark Canada, All rights reserved.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp