Family and friends of Carol Shields gathered in a Winnipeg garden on Monday for the sod-turning of a labyrinth that will be dedicated to the late author.

The Carol Shields Memorial Labyrinth will be a free, outdoor garden labyrinth in King's Park.

The first phase of the Carol Shields Memorial Labyrinth in Winnipeg's King's Park is expected to be completed and 'walkable' by September.
(Friesen Tokar Architects + Landscape + Interior Designers)

Shields, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who wrote many of her novels in Winnipeg, was fascinated with labyrinths. Her husband, Don, has mentioned her visits to world-famous ones such as the Hampton Court Maze near London, England, and the Saffron Walden Maze in Essex.

Labyrinths are a strong theme in her 1997 book, Larry's Party, whose main subject is a famous builder of mazes.

The memorial labyrinth, to be circular and about 45 metres in width, will incorporate hedges used by the character Larry in the book, including caragana, spirea, cotoneaster, hedge maple, boxwood, holly and barberry.

It also will include limestone and some of the flowers Shields refers to in another novel, The Stone Diaries, such as lilacs, crocuses, sweet William, bleeding heart, campanula, poppies, dahlias and daisies. 

Interpretive presentations and walks for community groups are planned in the finished labyrinth.

The idea to honour Shields with a namesake labyrinth was born shortly after her death in 2003 from breast cancer.

"Her spirit is just leading us through this and we feel it all the time," said co-ordinator Anne Nesbitt told CBC Arts Online.

"She wrote about ordinary people and those were her heroes. That's what this project is. It's just about an ordinary community, citizens coming together."

Organizers, including the Manitoba Writers' Guild and Manitoba Labyrinth Network, have raised approximately $130,000 toward the project from the city, the provincial government, the Shields family, and corporate and individual donors.

The total cost of the labyrinth is estimated at $220,000.