UNESCO's City of Literature programme is part of the wider Creative Cities Network.
The Network was launched in 2004, and now has member cities in seven creative fields. The other creative fields are: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Media Arts, and Music. [1]
To be approved as a City of Literature, cities need to meet a number of criteria set by UNESCO. [2]
Designated UNESCO Cities of Literature share similar characteristics:
Cities submit bids to UNESCO to be designated a City of Literature. The designations are monitored and reviewed every four years by UNESCO.
In 2004, Edinburgh became the first literary city. It hosts the annual International Book Festival and has its own poet laureate—the Makar. [3] [4]
Ljubljana runs their Library Under the Treetops at various locations across the city, including Tivoli City Park and Zvezda Park. These sites offer a selection of book genres and several domestic and foreign newspapers and magazines. [5]
Manchester is home to the "world-class" Central Library and the "historic gems" of The Portico, John Rylands, and Chetham's. [6]
Melbourne's is home to Australia's oldest public library State Library of Victoria, the Centre of Books, Writing and Ideas The Wheeler Centre and was home to the world's biggest book shop Cole's Book Arcade, opened at the turn of the twentieth century.
Prague's "great intellectual and creative resources," includes the book design, illustration, typography, and graphic design fields. It also has the National Library of the Czech Republic among over 200 libraries, one of Europe's highest concentrations of bookshops, and the Prague Writers' Festival. [7]
Libraries in other literary cities, include: Braidense National Library in Milan, Heidelberg University Library, and the National Library of Ireland in Dublin. [8] [9] [10]
Dunedin is the "Edinburgh of the South", and home to New Zealand's oldest university. Durban is "fun-loving." [11] [12]
Montevideo is a "vibrant, eclectic place" and Québec City is a "gorgeous, seductive place." [13] [14]
There are fifty-three Cities of Literature, spanning thirty-nine countries and six continents.
Twenty-four of the represented cities are European, seven are Asian, and three are North American. Oceania and South America is represented by two cities each, while Africa is to have one designated city.
Eight countries have two designated cities, while the UK has five.
The Cities of Literature are:
A literary festival, also known as a book festival or writers' festival, is a regular gathering of writers and readers, typically on an annual basis in a particular city. A literary festival usually features a variety of presentations and readings by authors, as well as other events, delivered over a period of several days, with the primary objectives of promoting the authors' books and fostering a love of literature and writing.
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The city has a rich Māori, Scottish, and Chinese heritage.
Bucheon is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Bucheon is located 25 kilometers (16 mi) away from Seoul, of which it is a satellite city. It is located between Incheon and Seoul.
The World Book Capital (WBC) is an initiative of UNESCO which recognises cities for promoting books and fostering reading for a year starting on April 23, World Book and Copyright Day. Cities designated as UNESCO World Book Capital carry out activities with the aim of encouraging a culture of reading in all ages and sharing UNESCO's values. The nomination does not provide a financial prize.
Gerry Smyth is an academic, musician, actor and playwright born in Dublin, Ireland. He works in the Department of English at Liverpool John Moores University, where he is Professor of Irish Cultural History. His early publications were mainly in the field of Irish literature, although since 2002 he has also written widely on the subject of Irish music.
Dublin City Libraries is the public library service for Dublin, Ireland. It is largest library authority in the Republic of Ireland, serving over half a million people and around 2.6 million visits annually through a network of 21 branch libraries and a number of specialist services.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a public library specialising in Scottish poetry. Since 1999, the library has been based at 5 Crichton's Close, just off the Canongate in Edinburgh's Old Town.
UNESCO's City of Film project is part of the wider Creative Cities Network.
The Wheeler Centre, originally Centre of Books, Writing and Ideas, is a literary and publishing centre founded as part of Melbourne's bid to be a Unesco Creative City of Literature, which designation it earned in 2008. It is named after its patrons, Tony and Maureen Wheeler, founders of the Lonely Planet travel guides.
Ulyanovsk, known until 1924 as Simbirsk, is a city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River 705 kilometers (438 mi) east of Moscow. Ulyanovsk has been the only Russian UNESCO City of Literature since 2015.
The Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) is an international literary festival held annually in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. The festival is considered to be one of South Asia's premier cultural events.
Peter John Olds was a New Zealand poet from Dunedin. He was regarded as being a significant contributor within New Zealand literary circles, in particular, having an influence with younger poets in the 1970s. Olds held the University of Otago Robert Burns Fellowship and was the inaugural winner of the Janet Frame Literary Award. During the 1970s he spent time in the community of Jerusalem with James K Baxter.
Book fairs and literary festivals are held throughout South Africa each year to promote literacy among children and adults. A country's literacy rate is often a key social indicator of development. In 2005, UNESCO Institute for Statistics reported a literacy rate of 94.37% among the population aged 15 years and older. The literacy rate among the male population in this age group was 95.4% and 93.41 for female counterparts. According to Statistics South Africa, functional illiteracy among those aged 20 years or older, was recorded at 15.4% in 2005. This has improved from 2002's 27.3%. Women are more likely to be functionally illiterate across all age groups, apart from those aged between 20 and 39 years old.
Melbourne City of Literature is a City of Literature located in Victoria, Australia, as part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. It was designated by UNESCO in 2008 as the second City of Literature, after Edinburgh. In 2014, the Melbourne City of Literature Office was established, directed by David Ryding. The Office is hosted at the Wheeler Centre and is dedicated to supporting Melbourne as a City of Literature through one-off programs and projects, partnerships with the literary sector, and international exchanges with other UNESCO Cities of Literature.
Kraków UNESCO City of Literature is a City of Literature located in Kraków, Poland, as a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Kraków joined the UCCN on 21 October 2013 as the first Slavic and second non-English speaking city. Kraków's main objective as a UNESCO City of Literature is to develop and implement a program promoting literary heritage, popularize reading among its residents, and support the local book market. Kraków UNESCO City of Literature also functions as a coordinator for the Cities of Literature and a member of the UCCN Steering Committee.
UNESCO's City of Music programme is part of the wider Creative Cities Network.
David Howard is a New Zealand poet, writer and editor. His works have been widely published and translated into a variety of European languages. Howard was the co-founder of the literary magazine takahē in 1989 and the Canterbury Poets Collective in 1990. In New Zealand he held the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago in Dunedin in 2013, the Otago Wallace Residency, in Auckland in 2014, and the Ursula Bethell Residency in Christchurch, in 2016. In more recent years he has been the recipient of a number of UNESCO City of Literature Residencies.
Lillehammer UNESCO City of Literature is a joint effort by Lillehammer, the Provincial Government of Innlandet, Norwegian Festival of Literature, Nansen Academy, Maihaugen and Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. Through different programs and initiatives, these six partners work together to strengthen Lillehammer's position as a creative city, and promoting Norwegian literature abroad.
The Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival is a literary festival held in Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand. Since its inception in 2014, there have been in total six festivals, including a special Celtic Noir event in 2019. The event is based mainly at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery but utilises Toitū Otago Settlers Museum, the Otago Pioneer Women's Memorial Hall, the Dunedin Central Library and in 2021 the central live music venue Dog with Two Tails. Festival events include talks, book launches, workshops, a storytrain or storybus, and in some years the unveiling of a new plaque on the Dunedin Writers' Walk.
