Exeter & UNESCO Cities of Literature

We took part in Lviv City of Literature’s project 'Places of Independence' which saw several UNESCO Cities of Literature sharing a piece of their city that to them represents independence and freedom.

The biggest city in east China’s Jiangsu Province, and once the capital of China. Nanjing is known for its long and rich literary history and received the UNESCO designation for City of Literature in 2019.

In this exciting exchange, both Cities of Literature send a published author to their respective cities for three weeks of writing, events, and activities. This year’s writers were Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson from Exeter and Sebastià Portell from Barcelona.

Writers and Artists from Exeter City of Literature and Jakarta City of Literature will be taking part in an international collaboration, reflecting on one another’s work and the theme of climate change.

Led by Milan UNESCO City of Literature, Reading For Odesa is a celebration of Ukrainian Literature in the face of the forced closure of Ukraine's Literature Museum due to the ongoing war.

Exeter was one of 14 UNESCO Cities of Literature to join Milan for a day of international collaboration and reflection.

Happy International Mother Language Day from Exeter City of Literature! This is one of the UNESCO International Days we as a City of Literature celebrate.

We spent the day sharing a variety of activity from around Devon and other Cities of Literature across the globe.

From the 9th - 13th October 2023 the Québec City of Literature team welcomed over 50 delegates from 34 Cities of Literature for an inspiring week of sharing & collaboration. Exeter was represented by Public Programmes Manager, Liv Hooper.

We teamed up with Barcelona UNESCO City of Literature for an international residency exchange, sending Devon author Lucy Holland to Barcelona for her first international writing residency in June, before bringing Catalan writer Míriam Cano to Exeter in October.

Slamovision is the spoken word version of Eurovision, where each UNESCO City of Literature slams their way to the grand title of Slamovision Champion every year!

In 2022 we took part for the first time, and we’re back in action again for 2023!

In July 2023, we teamed up with the Department for Languages, Cultures, and Visual Studies at the University of Exeter, to bring multiple UNESCO Cities of Literature to Exeter.

As part of our Gaia Creates programme, 4 international writers from fellow Cities of Literature contributed writing to The Gaia Papers.

Home to the world-famous Angoulême International Comics Festival, fellow UNESCO City of Literature Angoulême invited us to send some of Devon’s finest comic book students to the 50th Anniversary Festival & enter a special competition!

In June 2023, our Executive Director Anna Cohn Orchard visited fellow City of Literature Barcelona, to see what they get up to in the summer!

In September 2022, 26 Cities of Literature met for an inspiring week-long conference of presentations, roundtables, and collaboration in Melbourne! Exeter was represented by our Executive Director, Anna Cohn Orchard. Here’s some of what took place during this week of productive engagement, international networking on behalf of Exeter, and peer-to-peer support.

Bucheon UNESCO City of Literature in partnership with Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival launched their “Scary Tales Archive” Project in April 2022.

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival specialises in horror, thriller, fantasy, black comedy and sci-fi, collecting scary tales from across the world, and for 2022, Bucheon City of Literature invited other Cities of Literature to contribute to a new anthology. We were thrilled to commission a local writer to be included in the World Goedam Collection!

On World Environment Day, 5 June 2022, Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature released The Heat is On: Young Writers on the Climate Crisis, a free digital anthology of creative writing about the climate crisis facing our planet showcases writers under 20 years of age from across the Cities of Literature Network - incuding a story from Exeter!

In April 2022, Exeter was proud to welcome Catalan poets to the city, in partnership with Barcelona UNESCO City of Literature, Institut Ramon Llull, and two wonderful Exeter venues.

Performance poet Maria Sevilla & musician Joan Martínez treated us to wonderful poetic soundscapes at Bookbag, before Manuel Forcano explored his poetry in conversation with Dr Richard Mansell and translator Anna Crow at the Devon & Exeter Institution.

For World Poetry Day 2022, nine Cities of Literature collaborated on a chain reading of ‘So I’ll Talk About It’, by Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan.

Poets from Edinburgh, Exeter, Granada, Heidelberg, Iowa City, Kuhmo, Manchester, Norwich, and Tartu came together to celebrate the culture of Ukraine, and share a message of solidarity, hope and resilience.

Each year Manchester UNESCO City of Literature co-ordinates a series of events across the UNESCO City of Literature network, celebrating International Mother Language Day.

Find out about how Exeter got involved in 2022!