Nottingham Named UNESCO City of Literature

Friday 11 December 2015
reading time: min, words
Back of the net! Today it was announced that Nottingham is now a UNESCO City of Literature. To everyone involved, we salute you
Nottingham City of Literature

Nottingham City of Literature


With a literacy problem in the city – as well as nationally – that doesn’t bode well, it’s about time we stopped being all coy and started making summat of our past and present to act not only as a heritage but an inspiration.

The City of Literature team got together last year and realised that not only do we have a ridiculously rich literary history led by the rebel dons Lord Byron, DH Lawrence and Sillitoe, we’ve got loads going on right here and right now with the likes of John McGregor, Nicola Monaghan and Alison Moore.

Extending beyond the ‘pure’ written word, we’ve got cartoonist Brick (John Stuart Clark), the Mouthy Poets, the Lowdham Book Festival, the Nottingham Poetry Festival, a fistful of publishers, independent bookshop Five Leaves, a feminist and an anarchist library, and, well, loads more.

The partners involved in the bid were Nottingham City Council, Nottingham Trent University, the University of Nottingham, Bromley House Library, Nottingham Writers’ Studio, Creative Quarter, Nottingham Playhouse and Writing East Midlands. 

Here at LeftLion, now we’ve wiped the tears of pride away, we’d like to say a massive thank you and congratulations to them all for putting in so much time and effort to make Nottingham one of only twelve UNESCO Cities of Literature. 

City of Literature website

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