UNESCO City of Literature
Norwich is Bidding to be come England’s first UNESCO City of Literature
The City of Norwich aims to consolidate its position as the foremost literary city in the UK with a bid to become England’s first UNESCO City of Literature. Led by Writers’ Centre Norwich, the bid to join Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City and now Dublin as a UNESCO City of Literature was publically launched on Thursday 25th June 2009. We will be delivering the finished bid to the UNESCO committee in summer 2010.
The bid brings together Norwich’s readers, writers and libraries, the University of East Anglia, bookshops, printers, museums, media, the city and county councils, Arts Council England and many more.
Norwich’s bid states that UNESCO City of Literature status would:
- bring economic benefit to the city region
- bring the best in writing and reading experiences to the city’s population
- deliver improved literacy rates for the city and county
- be a platform in the development of a new Creative Economy Hub
What is City of Literature Status?
UNESCO awarded Edinburgh the first City of Literature accreditation in 2004, followed by Melbourne and Iowa City. Kolkata, Dublin and Vancouver are being considered. The City of Literature Status is part of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network, which was launched by UNESCO in October 2004. Its aim is to harness creativity in cities small enough to effect an impact on local cultural industries but large enough to serve as gateways to international markets and to promote cultural diversity.
Writers’ Centre Norwich and UNESCO City of Literature
Writers’ Centre Norwich is leading the bid in Norwich because we are a literature development agency interested in the artistic and social power of creative writing, and all the work we do reflects this:
We help aspiring and emerging writers through successful workshop and professional development schemes.
International writers find new audiences through our libraries programme, and readers are introduced to new works and ideas.
Major events with writers including Ian McEwan, J.M. Coetzee and Martin Amis inspire, whilst the Worlds roundtable Salon allows a rare space for writers to think and reflect together.
In June 2007 Norwich became the UK’s first City of Refuge, and the programme runs through Writers’ Centre Norwich. The International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) is an international association which exists to support refugee and asylum seeker writers and to offer then a place of safety and support, as well as time to write. We’ve been working in the community since 2006, particularly with schools, running projects led by refugee and asylum seeker and local writers. The children are introduced to asylum seeker and refugee issues through writing and other creative arts. In spring 2008 we also hosted a exiled Chinese writer in residence, Jiao Guobiao, and we look forward to welcoming writers in exile in the near future. www.writerscentrenorwich.org.uk
Why Norwich? Our Literary Heritage
Norwich has been a literary centre for more than 900 years. The Hebrew poet, Meir ben Elijah, lived in the mediaeval city until the expulsions of 1290. The 14th century anchorite, Julian of Norwich, wrote one of the most astonishing texts of the Middle Ages and was the first woman to be published in English. The great 17th century polymath, Thomas Browne, directly inspired the internationally acclaimed writer and Norfolk resident, WG Sebald, who also founded the British Centre for Literary
Translation at the University of East Anglia.
The application for Norwich to become a UNESCO City of Literature is a genuine bid to promote a unique city region with a sensational literary past and glittering literary future, from the first battlefield dispatch (1075) to the first woman published in English (Julian of Norwich – C15th), the first recognisable novel (C16th), the first blank verse (C16th), the first printed plan of an English city (C16th), the first published parliamentary debates (Luke Hansard – C18th), the largest concentration
of published dissenters, revolutionaries and social reformers (C18th /19th ) including Tom Paine and the 30 million bestseller, Anna Sewell; the first provincial library (1608), first municipality to adopt the
Library Act (1850), first provincial newspaper (1701), first British MA in creative writing (the first student of the first MA was Ian McEwan (1971)), the UK’s first City of Refuge (2006) for persecuted writers and a founding member of the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) and to cap it all, the Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library (C21st) has the highest number of visitors and users in the UK – by far. And that’s to leave out an extraordinary roll-call of great writers, publishers, printers and innovators – as many today as in the past – where literature really has been a force for positive change.
What happens Next?
We will submit the full bid on behalf of Norwich in spring 2010. It is a non-competitive, non time limited process.
Chris Gribble our chief executive says:
“Writing has changed things here in Norwich, affecting politics, social movements, religion and the artistic world. Norwich is home to the oldest and best Creative Writing course in the country and the world leading British Centre for Literary Translation. It has the busiest public library in the country as well as being England’s only City of Refuge for persecuted writers. This bid will ensure that our amazing literary heritage will be superseded by a future that is even more exciting.”