UNESCO already has 42 Cities of Literature

Tue, 09/08/2022 - 08:00

UNESCO already has 42 Cities of Literature

The Creative Cities program added Gothenburg, Jakarta and Vilnius last 2021.

Although submissions are taken every 4 years, in 2021 UNESCO added the capital cities of Gothenburg (Sweden), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Vilnius (Lithuania) to the list of Cities of Literature. There are currently a total of 42 cities in this Creative Cities program that was launched in 2004 with the goal of promoting creative development on a global scale. There are several criteria through which UNESCO chooses its cities of literature, such as the quality, quantity and diversity of publications, and the existence of bookstores, libraries, and other cultural centres that help preserve and promote both local and foreign literature.

Barcelona became part of this network in 2015, along with Baghdad (Iraq), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Lviv (Ukraine), Montevideo (Uruguay), Nottingham (United Kingdom), Óbidos (Portugal), Tartu (Estonia), and Ulyanovsk (Russia). In total, the Cities of Literature represent up to 32 countries and 6 continents.

If you want to know them all, you can check our website and also the UNESCO Cities of Literature official website. You can locate them on a world map and discover all their details.