Bookmarking Ontario

Have you ever stood next to a Canadian landmark and thought, “Damn, this experience would be so much better if I could read a complementary passage by a great Canadian author?” Writer and communications consultant Miranda Hill did. And with that, she launched Project Bookmark Canada.

Founded in 2009 and run out of Hill’s Hamilton home, Project Bookmark Canada is a national program working to pair Canadian geographical locations with powerful literary passages, and through this, connecting people to place. “When I discovered riveting writing set in places I knew, I felt like my whole environment went from black and white to colour,” Hill said. “I wasn’t just reading the story, I was part of it.” Hill decided she wanted to share this experience. These sites, known as “Bookmarks,” feature a plaque with a literary excerpt and background information about the author, quoted book, and site. The first site was unveiled last April when a passage from Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion was erected in the east end of Toronto’s Bloor Street Viaduct.

Michael Ondaatje with the first Project Bookmarks Canada bookmark.

Earlier this month, Project Bookmark Canada announced a partnership with Open Book Toronto and the Creative Book Publishing Program at Humber College to create the Ontario: Read It Here initiative. Ontario: Read It Here will consist of eight Ontario locations getting the Project Bookmark Canada treatment. “All [these programs] exist to celebrate reading in this country and in this province,” Hill explains. “Each organization brings different strengths to the project, allowing us to expand the reach of Project Bookmark Canada, but also enhance the experience.”

And what experience is complete without an iPhone application, interactive map, blog, and Twitter feed? Why, none of course! Open Book Toronto and Humber will make this magic happen: Open Book Toronto will launch an interactive map and app while road-tripping Humber students will visit each site and share their experiences in an online travelogue.

What sites will these lucky Humber students be visiting? That hasn’t been decided. With so many players involved and objectives to achieve, selecting the sites isn’t easy. “The reader needs to be able to stand there and experience what the author is saying,” Hill said. “It’s a concept shot of that place, not a passing reference.” Figuring that out that while paying homage to Ontario’s geography and literature (while selecting sites people actually want to visit) means lots of conversations and some compromise.

Ontario: Read It Here is a test drive for Project Bookmark Canada. If all goes well, Hill will seek out similar partnerships across Canada. Hill has big dreams, imagining bookmarks from coast to coast, in urban and rural areas, celebrating Canadian historical sites and little known spots on the map, and highlighting works from both beloved and obscure Canadian authors. “We want Project Bookmark Canada to be national in scope,” Hill explained. “I want the diversity of Canada’s geography and Canada’s literary landscape represented in this project.”

Relating geography and the written word is a hot trend right now. Coach House’s uTOpia series explores Toronto’s art, history, environment, and culture through essay compilations; Sarah Elton published City of Words, a collection of literary writing about Toronto last fall; and Amy Lavender Harris’s project Imagining Toronto explores Toronto’s representation in literature. These projects, while similar, have different approaches and objectives, whether it’s a practical exploration (uTOpia), celebratory compilation (Elton), or an academic dissection (Harris). Ontario: Read It Here inverts this relationship, and takes the passages to the place.

All these projects stem from a desire to feel connected to the place we call home. Hill agrees. “I think that when we make our own environment into a setting, we take a closer look at ourselves,” she said. “Our writers are doing that for us, and projects like Bookmark or like Sarah and Amy’s books are an opportunity for more people to encounter what our writers’ have discovered about ‘here’ and about ‘us.’”

The first four Ontario: Read It Here sites will be announced next month.

Photos courtesy Project Bookmark Canada, taken by Lisa Sakulensky.