Our Story

In 2019, five Atlantic Canadian publishers, Nimbus Publishing (Fiduciary Lead, NS), Bouton d’or Acadie (NB), Goose Lane Editions (NB), Breakwater Books (NL), and Acorn Press (PEI), partnered to seek funding for a digital innovation strategy that would engage local youth with local books.

Through hard work and the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Digitally Lit: Atlantic Canadian Youth Read broke ground as the region’s first by-youth-for-youth digital literacy initiative—and it’s been empowering a dynamic group of youth to creatively engage their peers with local books ever since!

Drawing on the principles of Critical Pedagogy of Place, Digitally Lit has carved out safe spaces for young people to challenge the narratives being presented to them in books and classrooms. Over the years, focus groups, surveys and discussions with youth participants revealed that although the youth were enjoying the local books they were reading, they wished to see more diversity in the stories being told and who is telling them.

When asked for their visions for the future of local publishing, the youth called for more books representing the diversity of experiences, cultures, backgrounds and histories of Atlantic Canada, and in particular, more books centering and celebrating Indigenous voices, stories, and lived experiences.

The Bridge to Publishing pilot program was conceived by Digitally Lit in response to these calls to action. With Nimbus as the lead and all five partnering publishers again pledging their support, a proposal was prepared by Digitally Lit, and soon approved by both the Ulnooweg Indigenous Communities Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. The Bridge to Publishing vision became a reality, and launched in 2023. The result was highly successful storytelling pilot that led to the training of several Indigenous youth, many of whom qualified for paid internships at partnering publishing houses and went on to publish their own works.

Thanks to the leadership of Ulnooweg Education Centre as well as the support of the Chamandy Foundation and other partnering stakeholders, Bridge to Publishing returned in 2025. For the next three years, Bridge to Publishing will focus on knowledge transfer between Elders and youth—in particular, the preservation of environmental stewardship/Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Elders’ stories.

To stay in the loop about the program and our current/future youth storytelling initiatives make sure to follow us on social media.