City of Literature
Exeter was awarded a UNESCO City of Literature designation in 2019 in recognition of “outstanding contributions to culture and creativity” and the wealth of literary heritage in the city, thanks to a multi-partner bid.
Exeter City of Literature believes in the power of words to imagine new possibilities for our world. As a charity, we champion stories and storytellers locally and globally, working with partners in the community and with UNESCO Cities of Literature around the world.
To celebrate five years as a UNESCO City of Literature, the people of Exeter voted on Exeter’s Favourite Book in 2024.
After months of voting, the winner was announced in September as The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien!
A fitting victor given its special connection to Exeter, with the inspirations for Middle Earth stemming from The Exeter Book, a 10th-century anthology of Anglo-Saxon poetry and riddles that resides at Exeter Cathedral. Find out more about Exeter’s literary history here.
Upcoming Literary Events across Exeter & Devon
“I always feel more connected and inspired afterwards, and likely with another book or two to add to the to read list!” — Bibliotherapy Trainee Harula
Bibliotherapy is a therapeutic approach that uses literature to help clients better understand and cope with the world around them.
Would you like to bring a Bibliotherapy in the Community session to your staff, team, clients, or volunteer group? Trainees from the Introduction to Bibliotherapy Skills course can provide bibliotherapy offerings across Devon.
Click the button below to request a session or to learn more
about this project.
Silent Book Club is a global community of readers and introverts, with more than 1000 chapters in 50 countries around the world led by local volunteers.
Exeter City of Literature began hosting the Exeter branch of Silent Book Club in April 2024.
If you would like to attend and would benefit from a book token to purchase a brand new release to read at Silent Book Club please contact us and we'd be happy to help.
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City Reads Celebration Evening On Tuesday 10th September, we celebrated the culmination of City Reads and Exeter’s fifth year as a UNESCO City of Literature at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum.
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Places of Independence Several UNESCO Cities of Literature recently collaborated by sharing a piece of their city that represents independence and freedom for an outdoor exhibition in Lviv City of Literature.
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Exeter UNESCO City of Literature Visits Nanjing Thanks to a grant from the British Council, Exeter UNESCO City of Literature had the opportunity to visit Nanjing UNESCO City of Literature - see what we got up to in June 2024!
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We unveil our Bridging Cities writers Exeter City of Literature and Jakarta City of Literature are commissioning three writers from Devon and three writers from Jakarta to create climate focused writing.
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Barcelona and Exeter exchange authors Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson and Sebastià Portell were this year’s writers involved in our annual International Writers Exchange with Barcelona UNESCO City of Literature.
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New Maps to celebrate UNESCO designation! Two free maps have been released to celebrate Exeter and the UK’s UNESCO designations, one from the UK National Commission for UNESCO and the other from Exeter City of Lit.
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Exeter visits Québec City Our Public Programmes Manager Liv Hooper has returned from an inspiring trip to Québec City of Literature for the latest annual UNESCO Cities of Literature Conference.
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Book Nooks In Warm Spaces In 2023, we launched a new campaign to make reading more accessible across Exeter and Devon - we wanted to put books into the hands of those that needed them most.
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Arts Council Funding News! After becoming a charity and independent organisation in late 2021, Arts Council England have awarded Exeter UNESCO City of Literature National Portfolio Organisation status.
We loved partnering with Penguin Books and Great Western Railway to bring something special to Exeter…
A permanent installation of new artwork was unveiled at Exeter St David’s station to celebrate Exeter’s UNESCO City of Literature status on World Book Day (Thursday 7th March).
The artwork, created by local artists Billy Ruffian (an artist alias of Isabel Keen) and Jack Ratcliff, honours Devon’s rich literary history and is supported by Great Western Railway’s (GWR) Customer and Community Improvement Fund.
The artwork located on the footbridge and lift footbridge at the station will be accessible to commuters travelling through Exeter St David’s.
From University of Exeter alum releasing science fiction debuts to a food writer’s foray into murder mysteries, this list is a fantastic overview of new releases in 2024 from Devon writers. Is this list missing a Devon author with a 2024 release we should know about? If it’s available on Bookshop.org - contact us!
Made of our stories.