‘Needed to be some recognition’: Fundraiser to create plaque at Miriam Toews’ former Steinbach home
A Steinbach writer has launched an online fundraiser to install a plaque at the Steinbach, Man. home where Miriam Toews spent her teen years.
Andrew Unger launched a GoFundMe last week, calling for donations towards a $1,500 goal to pay for the plaque.
As of Wednesday, it had already raised $1,200.
“I thought that there needed to be some recognition of Miriam Toews in Steinbach and up until now, there has not been anything,” Unger told CTV News Winnipeg in a phone interview.
Unger says he got involved with the fundraising effort after he heard through word of mouth that the home had been sold, and the new owners were keen on the idea.
The home itself has been immortalized in the opening lines of Toews’ Governor General’s Award-winning book “A Complicated Kindness,” described as a “low brick bungalow out on highway number twelve.”
Unger commissioned a design, priced out the project and talked with the city to see where it can be placed.
Unger, a writer himself, counts Toews as an inspiration.
Author Miriam Toews is shown in an undated handout photo. Toews is among the finalists for the lucrative Scotiabank Giller Prize. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Random House of Canada, Carol Loewen)
“She's bold. She's honest. She's funny. She writes about people in places that are familiar to her and familiar to a lot of people, but I think she writes about corners and pockets of Canadian culture that maybe hadn't been written about all that much before her.”
The plaque will be similar to other bronze designs in the city with text summraizing Toews' literary contributions and her connection to the home.
Unger says he received Toews’ blessing before going ahead with the plaque.
It’s a small way to recognize the impact her writing has had in southern Manitoba and around the world.
“Certainly not every town our size has a writer of this level of prominence, so I think it's time that we acknowledge that publicly in some way.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
3 injured after man with knife enters Montreal-area mosque
Three men were injured after trying to subdue a man armed with a knife during afternoon prayers at a Montreal-area mosque Friday afternoon.
Police arrest 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole Porsche and ran over its owner
Police have arrested an 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole a Porsche and then ran over its owner in an incident that was captured on video.
Woman nearly shut out of mother's estate sues brother in B.C. Supreme Court – and wins
Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.
Teen arrested in New Brunswick after emergency alert; 5 people in custody
A 15-year-old boy who was the subject of an emergency alert in New Brunswick has been arrested.
Kamala Harris tells Oprah any intruder to her home is 'getting shot'
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday issued a warning to any potential home intruder: 'If somebody breaks in my house, they're getting shot.'
'We're still pushing hard': Search for missing Manitoba boy continues, RCMP find tracks
The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.
On the trail of the mystery woman whose company licensed exploding pagers
What Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, 49, the Italian-Hungarian CEO and owner of Hungary-based BAC Consulting, says she hasn't done is make the exploding pagers that killed 12 people and wounded more than 2,000 in Lebanon this week.
Four dead in northern Ontario house fire
Emergency crews in northern Ontario found the bodies of four people inside a home where a fire broke out Thursday night.
Top Hezbollah commander among 14 killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander and other senior figures in the Lebanese movement in an airstrike on Beirut on Friday, vowing to press on with a new military campaign until it is able to secure the area around the Lebanese border.