Dublin, Ireland named as fourth Unesco City of Literature

Travel is good

Dublin, Ireland named as fourth Unesco City of Literature

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/delight-at-city-of-literature-accolade-for-dublin-2272904.html

http://dublincityofliterature.com/

Great news for Dublin and congratulations to Dublin City Public Libraries!

dr gonzo

This is fantastic news and i dont mean to sound ungrateful or overconfident but im a little surprised at the cities we've come after, i mean is Iowa city really brimming with more literary heritage then Dublin? Even Melbourne (which im sure has a great literary tradition) i would have thought would have come after Dublin.

Im sure im wrong here but can anyone fill me in?

Travel is good

I was wondering that too. According to the newspaper article:

"Melbourne secured the sought after title in 2008 thanks mainly to the city being widely acknowledged as Australia's cultural capital.

Iowa was successful the same year after the local university produced more than 25 Pulitzer Prize winners since 1955. "

I don't work in the libraries myself, so can't illuminate you any further. Just my opinion, I'd say it was probably this year that Dublin put together such a good case for winning the award, that they were successful this time. Please do ask Dublin City Public Libraries, as I'm sure they'd love to answer your question!

In the current climate, this will be good for tourism.

We also have the Book Crossing Convention coming to Dublin in 2012.

see www.bookcrossing.com

Looking at the Dublin City of Literature website, there are loads of literary events in Ireland over the next year or so.

That's great for all us literature fans.

dr gonzo

Travel is good wrote: »

We also have the Book Crossing Convention coming to Dublin in 2012.

see www.bookcrossing.com

Ah wow cool, i only found that site recently and thought it was an amazing idea. I wasnt aware it was so big that it has its own convention.

Kinski

dr gonzo wrote: »

This is fantastic news and i dont mean to sound ungrateful or overconfident but im a little surprised at the cities we've come after, i mean is Iowa city really brimming with more literary heritage then Dublin?

Travel is good wrote: »

Iowa was successful the same year after the local university produced more than 25 Pulitzer Prize winners since 1955.

The University of Iowa has a famous Writers' Workshop.

tomasocarthaigh

As reguards prizes, Dublin may not have as many as Iowa, but due to the economic profile of the country, it gets the cream of the crop of the country as so many have to move there for work reasons.

Two of the countrys greats, Yeats and Kavanagh lived there for a while, and are forever remebered as from there.

It is a prize as much for the nationa s a result as it was for the city of Dublin, and we all should bask in the glory, and ensure that we always have a wide variety of writing talent coming out by encouraging all we know with an intrest, and fight the negative imagery of writers and writing.

On a side note - shameless self plugging here - my collection of poems "Dander in Dublin" is on my website, and you can view them here.

A Dander In Dublin

Poems from a walk around old Dublin

Travel is good

I agree, this is a prize for the whole country. It's a great opportunity to promote tourism among people interested in literature. I put the notice up on the Book Crossing site. There are a lot of literature lovers there from all over the world who will have further reasons to visit us in Ireland.