Celebrating 20 years in the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature

This October, Edinburgh celebrates its twenty years since its designation as the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature. The prestigious title was created here in 2004, and Edinburgh is now one of 53 Cities of Literature globally.

Looking back, we can hardly believe it’s been two decades. Our CEO Marc Lambert said: 'Edinburgh City of Literature’s work over the last 20 years, quite apart from establishing Edinburgh as the world’s first City of Literature, has created an international network of cultural exchanges and opportunities with other literary cities that is increasingly important and valuable in today’s fractured world. The shared values it has created internationally is of huge cultural benefit to Scotland, and acts as a reminder that our culture, and the relationships it makes possible across the world, is one of Scotland’s greatest assets.'

Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust(this link will open in a new window) is a charity based here in Edinburgh that maintains the title and has helped build the network, using it to bring opportunities to Scottish writers to work internationally. Locally, they have created a wide range of projects to connect readers and writers to Edinburgh as an amazing literary place.

Bringing literature to public spaces

Readers and writers across Scotland have benefited from the Edinburgh City of Literature Trust’s previous projects in numerous ways. They've broken down barriers and changed people’s views of literature with Robert Louis Stevenson Day and citywide reading campaigns. They've transformed urban public spaces using literature by inscribing the words of Scottish authors into the city’s walls and pavements, projecting poetry onto Edinburgh Castle Rock and covering Edinburgh Waverley, the world’s only railway station named after an author's work, with writing and poetry.

Other projects have ranged from international exchanges to local residencies: from one-off conferences to monthly literary salons, and literary heritage promotions to community funds. The Trust collaborated with partners to publish the first Scots and Gaelic graphic novels and through our reading campaigns, have given away over 93,000 free books through schools and community programmes.

Edinburgh is a truly amazing literary city and we’re proud to play our part in that, supporting the creative community and reaching out across the world to build partnerships. Being a UNESCO City of Literature isn’t just about past and present though – it’s about working together for the future. The City of Literature Trust is hosting a conference here in October to bring together all the cities in the network and connect them to writers in the city and with organisations like us.

We’ve just celebrated our own 25th anniversary, and as we enter October, we're thrilled to be marking another milestone in the world’s first City of Literature.

To learn more, visit Edinburgh as a City of Literature Trust's website(this link will open in a new window).

You can also explore our book list of 20 brilliant novels set in Edinburgh, created in collaboration with Edinburgh City of Literature.