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Find out more about what we do here at City of Literature. Whether it’s our big events like Festival of Libraries or International Mother Language Day celebrations, or projects produced in partnership with literary organisations around the City, you’ll find everything you need here.
Manchester City of Literature’s Festival of Libraries returns for 2025 and will run 4-8th June. This county-wide celebration of Greater Manchester’s 133 libraries takes place annually across the city. The festival, which is supported by Arts…
The Manchester Multilingual City Poets are talented creatives who have been appointed to produce a series of original works on behalf of the City. The City’s Multilingual City Poets act as ambassadors for Manchester’s residents, communities,…
Real Contentment is a 9-month artist exchange programme that will be the start of a lasting partnership between Manchester and Nanjing, both UNESCO Cities of Literature and UNESCO Cities of Lifelong Learning. Collaborations between six artists…
There are about 6,500 languages in the world, and 200 languages spoken in Manchester at any one time.
Manchester is bursting with literature, it’s leaping off the page and onto our streets. You can download or pick up a physical copy of the Manchester City of Literature Map in venues across the city and…
The Manchester City of Literature Community Champions programme engages communities in Greater Manchester that are not accessing literature on their own terms. In 2021, the programme’s initial year, three Champions worked across Rusholme, Harpurhey and Moston;…
Held every year on 21 March, World Poetry Day celebrates one of humanity’s most treasured forms of cultural and linguistic expression and identity. Practiced throughout history – in every culture and on every continent – poetry…
The Manchester City of Literature Schools Writing Trail showcases the ‘best of the best’ of student writing across Greater Manchester, offering a literature trail in conjunction with Manchester’s Festival of Libraries. The Schools Writing Trail is…
Re:Sound pairs musicians with archives around Greater Manchester. The artists connect with librarians and archivists to uncover historic material which explored a range of themes that have so far included Manchester’s textile history, African celebrations in…
The spoken word version of Eurovision, hosted by the UNESCO Cities of Literature — where each City slams their way to the grand title of Slamovision Champion every year! The UNESCO Creative Cities of Literature hold…
Countering climate anxiety with hope, clarity and inspiration: The RoundView is a toolkit for sustainability thinking and learning developed through research at the University of Manchester. Manchester City of Literature has been working with the RoundView…
Talk About Talawa is our community podcasting project that builds on our Community Champions engagement project for NHS Untold Stories and Windrush 75. Working with Reform Radio and Assistant Producer Kim, we engaged first and second…
Threads is a new physical and digital exhibition of multilingual writing and material from UNESCO Cities of Literature. Textiles and threads are deeply woven through our city’s history. Manchester and the surrounding towns were long recognised…
Over the last three years, with funding from arts councils in four nations, Pop Up Projects – a children’s literature agency – produced an ambitious LGBTQ+ literature creation project called The Rainbow Library. The Rainbow Library…
SINCE LAST SEPTEMBER FIVE RESIDENTS HAVE BEEN UNDERTAKING MONTHLY WALKS THROUGH GORTON AND ABBEY HEY WITH THE WRITER SARAH BUTLER. Each month a different person led the walk around the parks, houses, work places, neglected corners…
During Autumn and Winter 2021, Manchester City of Literature delivered the Heritage Stories Project, working with Archives and Community Groups in Manchester (84 Youth, Odd Arts, Hideaway, Archives+), Tameside (Tameside and Glossop Dementia Friendly, Tameside Local…
In March 2020, Manchester went into the first national lockdown, and would remain in a state of lockdown until the following year. At that time, the Manchester City of Literature team had only been working together…
Manchester City of Literature, in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University, Nanjing City of Literature and 42nd Street are delighted to announce the launch of a new project, Connectedness Through Comics. The partnership were keen to explore…
Created in partnership with Contact and spoken word collective Young Identity, Our City Speaks is part of the ongoing performances by Greater Manchester’s United We Stream. Manchester City of Literature held a brand new event featuring…
On Monday 10 June 2019, a record-breaking multilingual community poem was launched at Manchester Central Library, attended by over 100 special guests and contributors to the poem. Made in Manchester is a collaborative project led by Read…
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