Seattle is a City of Literature
release date: November 14, 2017
We have a new literary family!
The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has announced that Seattle is now a City of Literature in the Creative Cities Network.
Since 2013, this is a dream that our city's literary community has been working toward. The nonprofit organization Seattle City of Literature was formed to apply to UNESCO's Creative Cities Network, and the Library is one of the 42 literary organizations on its advisory board.
"The designation connects Seattle to a network of Creative Cities across the world," said Stesha Brandon, literature and humanities program manager at the Library and Seattle City of Literature board member. "It means that the Library can continue to highlight Seattle's literary contributions, and enrich the lives of our community by celebrating the work of international writers."
Now that we're a City of Literature, Seattle can work on international programming with the 28 other cities in the UNESCO City of Literature network. Aside from us, seven other cities became UNESCO City of Literature members this year. These include:
Bucheon (South Korea)
Durban (South Africa)
Lillehammer (Norway)
Manchester (UK)
Milan (Italy)
Québec City (Canada)
Utrecht (Netherlands)
Our city joins an international network of 116 member cities from 54 countries that promote socio-economic and cultural tourism in the developed and developing world through creative industries.