City of Literature

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:

• Quality, quantity, and diversity of publishing in the city
• Quality and quantity of educational programmes focusing on domestic or foreign literature at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels
• Literature, drama, and/or poetry playing an important role in the city
• Hosting literary events and festivals, which promote domestic and foreign literature
• Existence of libraries, bookstores, and public or private cultural centres, which preserve, promote, and disseminate domestic and foreign literature
• Involvement by the publishing sector in translating literary works from diverse national languages and foreign literature
• Active involvement of traditional and new media in promoting literature and strengthening the market for literary products

Cities submit bids to UNESCO to be designated a City of Literature. The designations are monitored and reviewed every four years by UNESCO.

Heidelberg University Library and Braidense National Library in Milan

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][6]

Manchester is home to the "world-class" Central Library and the "historic gems" of The Portico, John Rylands, and Chetham's.[7]

Melbourne's "vibrant literary scene" includes over 300 bookshops, Victoria State Library among many other libraries, a base for Penguin Random House and for Lonely Planet, the Wheeler Centre, and the Melbourne Writers' Festival.[8][9][10]

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.[11][12]

Libraries in other literary cities, include: Braidense National Library in Milan, Heidelberg University Library, and the National Library of Ireland in Dublin.[13][14][15]

Dunedin is the "Edinburgh of the South", and home to New Zealand's oldest university. Durban is "fun-loving."[16][17]

Montevideo is a "vibrant, eclectic place" and Québec City is a "gorgeous, seductive place."[18][19]

The National Library in Prague, the National Library in Dublin, and John Rylands Library in Manchester

There are forty two Cities of Literature, spanning twenty-eight 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.

Aracataca train station, in Colombia, one of the literary settings of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez´s novel.

Eight countries have two designated cities, while the UK has five.

The Cities of Literature are:

City	Country	Year of inscription
Angoulême	France	2019[20]
Baghdad	Iraq	2015[21]
Barcelona	Spain	2015[22]
Beirut	Lebanon	2019[23]
Bucheon	Korea Republic	2017[24]
Dublin	Ireland	2010[25]
Dunedin	New Zealand	2014[26]
Durban	South Africa	2017[27]
Edinburgh	United Kingdom	2004[28]
Exeter	United Kingdom	2019[29][30]
Gothenburg	Sweden	2021[31]
Granada	Spain	2014[32]
Heidelberg	Germany	2014[33]
Iowa City	United States	2008[34]
Jakarta	Indonesia	2021[35]
Kraków	Poland	2013[36]
Kuhmo	Finland	2019[37]
Lahore	Pakistan	2019[38]
Leeuwarden	Netherlands	2019[39]
Lillehammer	Norway	2017[40]
Ljubljana	Slovenia	2015[41]
Lviv	Ukraine	2015[42]
Manchester	United Kingdom	2017[43]
Melbourne	Australia	2008[44]
Milan	Italy	2017[45]
Montevideo	Uruguay	2015[46]
Nanjing	China	2019[47]
Norwich	United Kingdom	2012[48]
Nottingham	United Kingdom	2015[49]
Óbidos	Portugal	2015[50]
Odesa	Ukraine	2019[51]
Prague	Czech Republic	2014[52]
Québec City	Canada	2017[53]
Reykjavík	Iceland	2011[54]
Seattle	United States	2017[55]
Slemani	Iraq	2019[56]
Tartu	Estonia	2015[57]
Ulyanovsk	Russia	2015[58]
Utrecht	Netherlands	2017[59]
Vilnius	Lithuania	2021[60]
Wonju	South Korea	2019[61]
Wrocław	Poland	2019[62]

• Creative Cities Network
• City of Crafts and Folk Arts
• City of Music
• City of Film
• Design Cities
• City of Gastronomy