THE 11 LITERARY CITIES OF THE WORLD
superkakkarA UNESCO initiative has awarded the City of Literature award to 20 cities since 2004
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND
Edinburgh was the first UNESCO City of Literature in 2004. A city that was always a literary power and has a payroll of writers who take pride in authors such as Walter Scott or Robert Louis Stevenson. For his old coffees, JK Rowling wrote the first pages of his famous Harry Potter series. The Edinburgh International Book Festival is the largest in the world, celebrated every August and lasts almost two weeks, long enough for over 800 writers to pass through. Walking through its streets is a pleasure for book lovers, where they will find more than 50 bookstores and all possible literary inspiration.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Melbourne, the second largest city in Australia, was the second City of Literature named by UNESCO in August 2008. The city has a spectacular network of libraries and there are a lot of bookstores. The City Basement Books is famous for being decorated as if it were a place of "Alice in Wonderland"
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IOWA, UNITED STATES
Iowa was where the world's first Creative Writing Master was created in 1936. And they should know something because this city has produced more than 25 Pulitzer prize-winning authors since 1955 . They say that in the city of Iowa, half of its population is dedicated to writing, and the other half aspires to do so. Perhaps this is why different festivals and literary competitions are held during the year. One of the most emblematic bookstores in the United States is here, the Prairie Lights attended by customers like Barack Obama.
DUBLIN, IRELAND
I could not miss Dublin on this list. If you even have a day dedicated to a book: it is for Ulysses by James Joyce that the Bloomsday is celebrated in the city every June 16. That day is normal to see people characterized as in the time that is reflected in the famous novel. The list of famous writers is impressive: Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, James Joyce, WB Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Jonathan Swift. They have nothing more and nothing less than four Nobel Prize authors: George Bernard Shaw, WB Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. And if this were not enough, in Dublin , literature tastes like pints, and a pub can be the best place in the world to find inspiration. Many writers, at least, found it.
REYKJAVIK, ICELAND
This was the first English-speaking city to join the Network of Cities of Literature. It is the cultural capital of Iceland and the writer Arnaldur Indridason is the literary sensation of the country, and, incidentally, one of the kings of the contemporary black novel. Surprising, since Reykjavik is one of the cleanest and most welcoming cities in the world. Iceland is the country in the world that publishes more titles per capita than almost any other.
NORWICH, ENGLAND
Julian de Norwich is the author of the first book in English written by a woman in 1395. It seems fair, then, that it was named the sixth Literary City of UNESCO . Since those years, Norwich has lived to the rhythm of literary developments. The city does not lack libraries for it; For example, The Book Hive was opened in 2009 and is one of the best independent bookstores in Britain. It is the first city-refuge of the United Kingdom for threatened writers since 2007 and was a founding member of the International Network of Shelter Cities (ICORN).
KRAKOW, POLAND
Krakow is the cradle of Polish language and literature and is the city of the Polish Nobel Prizes for literature , with authors such as the poet Wislawa Szymborska and Czesław Miłosz. More than any other literary form, Krakow is known for its poetry. Several hundred poets work and write here. In the city are some of the most beautiful and valuable scriptoriums and libraries in the world. Several literature festivals are held such as the Miłosz Festival and Conrad Festival.
DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND
What is in this remote city of New Zealand to be part of the Literary Cities of UNESCO? It may be that Dunedin is the ancestral home of the Kāi people , whose legends told orally is a centuries-old tradition. But not only that. It turns out that Dunedin has been home to many of New Zealand's most celebrated writers and poets since the 19th century, including the poet Thomas Bracken, the author of the country's national anthem. In addition, its library was the first public and free in the country . It is the case that many writers and illustrators of children's books live and work in Dunedin. As if that were not enough, the city, nestled in the bay of Otago, has dreamlike landscapes.
HEILDELBERG, GERMANY
This is a beautiful city on the banks of the Neckar River in southwestern Germany , in the Rhine Valley. Heildelberg is home to the oldest university in Germany, The Ruperto Carola University . It has always been a center of learning and literature and has received famous writers such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, author of Faust, and the great romantic writers Clemens Brentano, Bettina von Arnim and Friedrich Hölderlin. Perhaps due to the influence of its old castle, this was the cradle of German romanticism of the 19th century.
GRANADA, SPAIN
Granada became a new City of Literature in December 2014. The city has been a literary inspiration since the time of al-Andalus . It seems that poetry is at ease with the Alhambra as a backdrop. Federico García Lorca left his legacy in the form of verses . The city has a lively university atmosphere and there are usually literary and cultural events throughout the year.
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
The capital of the Czech Republic lives since the fall of communism and the return to democracy, in 1989, a true cultural explosion. The city of Prague , of approximately 1.24 million people, has one of the most interesting cultural scenes in Europe. The list of famous authors who walked through its streets is long: Franz Kafka, Max Bod, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, or novelists such as Milan Kundera. In parallel, the publishing industry is very important in the city. Charles University is the oldest university in central Europe. There are real wonders like the one in the photo: the Strahov monastery library .
author: super kakkar
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