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After collective efforts, Hobart recognised as new UNESCO City of Literature

A five-year ambition has come to fruition thanks to the efforts of the City of Hobart's literary community.

2 Nov 2023

Celina Lei

City of Literature. UNESCO. Image is a library or bookshop stuffed with books and a person wearing a backpack and beanie with their back to the camera looking at the titles.

Writing and Publishing

Photo: Darwin Vegher on Unsplash.

In a press release dated 31 October (World Cities Day), UNESCO announced 55 new cities to join its Creative Cities Network, including nipaluna/Hobart as Australia’s new UNESCO City of Literature.

The Creative Cities Network acknowledges seven creative fields: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts and Music. Hobart joins the ranks of Creative Cities alongside Melbourne, which earned the title in 2008, as well as such cities as Edinburgh (Scotland), Dunedin (Aotearoa New Zealand), Barcelona (Spain), Dublin (Ireland), Nanjing (China), Seattle (US), Okayama (Japan) and more.

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Celina Lei

Celina Lei is an arts writer and editor at ArtsHub. She acquired her M.A in Art, Law and Business in New York with a B.A. in Art History and Philosophy from the University of Melbourne. She has previously worked across global art hubs in Beijing, Hong Kong and New York in both the commercial art sector and art criticism. She took part in drafting NAVA’s revised Code of Practice - Art Fairs and was the project manager of ArtsHub’s diverse writers initiative, Amplify Collective. Celina is based in Naarm/Melbourne.