For Immediate Release—On September 2nd, Owen Sound received a permanent literary tribute when Mayor Ruth Lovell Stanners and author Terry Griggs unveiled a new plaque at the city’s waterfront. The plaque bears approximately 500 words from Terry Griggs’s novel Rogues’ Wedding (published by Random House of Canada in 2002), depicting a scene that takes place at the Owen Sound harbour, on the exact site where the plaque was installed.
The installation is part of Project Bookmark Canada, an initiative that is creating a series of permanent plaques—or “Bookmarks”—across the country, marking where the real and imagined landscapes meet.
“This is a new, Canadian initiative that celebrates both our country’s actual geography and writers’ interpretations of our Canadian spaces,” says Miranda Hill, Founder and Executive Director of Project Bookmark Canada. “Each Bookmark allows readers to stand in the exact physical location where a fictional scene or a poem is set and to read it right there.”
Mayor Lovell Stanners says that Owen Sound is a fitting selection for the cross-Canada series. “Owen Sound is a very beautiful place that inspires a great deal of creative expression and inspiration,” says Lovell Stanners. “Being part of this cross-Canada series means that even more people will learn about our city, its stories and its spaces.”
Author Terry Griggs is also pleased to see her work displayed in situ in Owen Sound. “Project Bookmark is a fabulous initiative and I'm delighted that a work of mine has been selected for installation in Owen Sound,” Griggs says. “Books can so easily disappear—and the central character in Rogues' Wedding certainly tried hard to disappear—but thanks to the generosity of everyone involved, both are to be given an unexpected prominence and permanence.”
The Owen Sound Bookmark is the second in the national series. The first Bookmark was a passage from Michael Ondaatje’s iconic novel In the Skin of a Lion, installed at the Bloor Street Viaduct in Toronto in April 2009.
Five new Bookmarks will be installed in Ontario in 2010, through a joint project called Ontario: Read It Here, developed in partnership with Open Book: Ontario and The Creative Book Publishing Program at Humber College and funded by the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
Through the Ontario: Read It Here partnership, the Owen Sound Bookmark and its sister locations will be publicized across the province, with a particular focus on online promotion through www.openbookontario.com. “Our online visitors will learn more about Rogues’ Wedding, author Terry Griggs, why Owen Sound is a great place to visit, and get a taste for other literary connections to the city,” says Amy Logan Holmes, Executive Director of Open Book: Ontario. “We look forward to encouraging people to read the books and visit the sites—online and in person.”
You can also learn more about Project Bookmark Canada and its planned installations across the country at www.projectbookmarkcanada.ca.
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Contact:
Miranda Hill, Founder and Executive Director
Project Bookmark Canada
905-975-1797
miranda.hill@projectbookmarkcanada.ca
