Barcelona presents its candidature for UNESCO City of Literature

On the 13th of April, beginning at 6 pm in the City Council Saló de Cent, Barcelona mayor Javier Trias presided over the Promotional Council meeting for the presentation of the city’s candidature for City of Literature, one aspect of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Details of the candidature and of the city’s commitment to home-grown and international literature were revealed during the meeting. The Creative Cities Network currently includes the cities of Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City, Reykjavik, Dublin, Norwich, Krakow, Heidelberg, Prague, Dunedin and Granada. One of the purposes of the candidature, and an aspect that was reflected during the meeting, is to help promote the creation, production, distribution and consumption of books and literature in general on a local level as well as to promote literary creativity and expression by integrating cultural and creative industries into local development plans.

Barcelona possesses a rich and historically extensive literary heritage. Local writers have made a significant contribution to world literature in both Catalan and Spanish and the city has always served as inspiration for writers from the world over.

It is, for example, the only city to earn a mention in Don Quixote and also serves as the centre stage for George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia – two of Barcelona’s many links with the literary world. From a publishing perspective the city is an international reference point and boasts the peculiarity of being a world publishing capital in two languages, Catalan and Spanish.

Highlights among other assets that will form part of Barcelona’s candidature for City of Literature include, for example, the Diada de Sant Jordi (the St. George’s Day Rose and Book Festival), the city’s more than forty libraries, the high level of training in this area offered by local universities and other training centres and the many literary events that take place in the city throughout the year, including the BCNegra Festival, Kosmopolis, Poetry Week, the Historical Novel Festival and the International Comic Convention, among others.