City of Literature

From the UNESCO website

In October 2004 Edinburgh, UK became the first city to join the Creative Cities Network as a City of Literature.

See Edinburgh City Profile (PDF) and the Edinburgh Candidature File

This designation has provided a focus for literary activities and has attracted prestigious events such as the Man Booker International Prize for Literature to Scotland. The City of Literature now seeks to build on this honour and to deliver clear benefits for Scotland by promoting it through literature and by establishing the city of Edinburgh as an example for all the other cities of literature that follow.

Not only is Edinburgh the home of many world-famous contemporary authors, but it also boasts many historic literary legends such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Walter Scott, the author of Ivanhoe and Rob Roy, and Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Jekyll and Hyde and Treasure Island.

According to preliminary estimates, Edinburgh, UNESCO City of Literature is expected to generate approximately £2.2m a year for the city and £2.1m to the rest of Scotland, in terms of income from hosting major new festivals, events and conferences in the city, higher levels of tourism and relevant book sales.

The Iranian city of Shiraz has been nominated to become the second City of Literature.

Melbourne will be putting in a bid to become a City of Literature. See - The Age.

Both Melbourne and Sydney actually have very strong literary traditions.

Even better if Melbourne has something like the London Book Project to circulate free books on public transport.

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Monday. It always comes around too quickly.