Milan is UNESCO City of Literature since 2017 and has always been a place for writers, readers and above all publishers. Laura Teruzzi, working at the Comune di Milano, told us more about international exchanges, the process of becoming a City of Literature and recent projects.
What makes Milan a City of Literature and since when does it have the title?
Milan is a city of writers, readers and publishers. Among writers, there are those who were born here, such as Alessandro Manzoni or Carlo Emilio Gadda, those who settled here from other parts of Italy – such as Nobel laureates Eugenio Montale, Salvatore Quasimodo and Dario Fo – and those who came from all over the world and were bewitched by the city, such as Stendhal and Hemingway.
In Milan, reading enthusiasts can rely on many libraries (more than 200, including public and private) and bookstores (more than 400) and attend several literary festivals that host authors from all over the world. Milan is also the capital of Italian publishing, with 500 large and small publishers and thousands of professionals (translators, editors, literary agents, illustrators, graphic designers) working in the field. In addition, there are publishing archives that made the history of Italy and centers that offer ongoing training in different areas of the publishing industry. UNESCO has recognized in Milan the nature of an all-round literary city for the richness, pervasiveness and vibrancy of its entire book industry since 2017.
More about the UNESCO City of Literature Milan
With which projects did Milan apply for the title City of Literature?
The projects proposed in our bid for UNESCO were aimed at enhancing the urban fabric and the professions related to the book industry. To start with, we implemented an experimental project, from an idea and in collaboration with the Milano-Bicocca University, aimed at the use of VR for the promotion of reading. At the same time, we started mapping the city, in collaboration with the Bocconi University and the Polytechnic of Milan, to highlight the presence and distribution of publishing houses, libraries, bookshops in the area. Both of these projects were funded by the Ministry of Culture, and starting in 2023 we started a further mapping work designing a new website that will tell the story of the city through literary itineraries that combine literature with other expressions of creativity. This new project was made possible by funding from the Ministry of Tourism dedicated to cities that host UNESCO heritage sites or are Creative Cities.
Since our first year in the network, our Creative City has been a protagonist in BookCity, the main event dedicated to books and reading in our city, by hosting a different literary city each year: Dublin, Barcelona, Heidelberg, Lviv and Angoulême have, so far, presented their literary city with some of the protagonists of their literary scene.
How did the idea for the application come about and what did the application process look like?
The idea of joining the network arose from a discussion with the city's organisations involved in the promotion of reading and publishing. Since Milan has long been a city of publishers that attracts a variety of professionals in the sector (authors, translators, illustrators, journalists, etc.) and is increasingly orienting its activities towards the international dimension, the Department of Culture decided to consult numerous city stakeholders on the possibility of an application for the UNESCO network. The responses were numerous and at the time of the bid, some forty letters of support were submitted from as many stakeholders in the book and education sector, including city universities, professional categories, associations and institutions dealing with reading and books. The application form itself was drawn up with the support of the universities, which captured the metropolitan scenario related to books and reading.
What were your first steps after receiving the title?
Following the designation, the municipal administration drew up the guidelines for the realisation of the activities connected to the participation in the cluster and the organisation chart of the actors who, in different ways, collaborate for the same purpose. The administration decided to keep the management of all activities related to the UNESCO network and established that it would be entrusted to the Libraries Area, which is collaborating with a number of players in the Milanese book chain for the dissemination and promotion of books.
Among the first cluster initiatives the city joined was Poetic Encounters, conceived and coordinated by the city of Heidelberg and presented at the 2018 UCCN Krakow meeting. In March of the same year, during the Tempo di Libri bookfair, the city promoted its new designation by announcing the creation of a schedule dedicated to UNESCO Creative Cities of Literature within the BookCity festival.
What does it mean for Milan to be part of UNESCO’s Creative Cities? What are the advantages, what are the obligations?
The UNESCO network brings together cities of various sizes and locations which are all committed to making culture a vector for sustainable development. Within such a diverse network it is possible to find examples, best practices, and public policies that, paradoxically, are more applicable and inspirational for a city like Milan (a large industrialized northern city in a country made up mostly of small and medium-sized provincial cities) than any other city in the same country. This is the major advantage of belonging to such a network. In addition, the international network provides opportunities and strategies for collaboration in an international context that give local public policies on creativity and culture a scope which is wider – and thus, more effective – than the one they would have if constrained in the home territory. UNESCO network also provides unique chances to design cross-cultural projects as it brings together several thematic clusters and, last but not least, it gives member cities a big chance of visibility on an international stage.
Regarding obligations, the main one is the ongoing reporting effort, which involves the regular provision of reports on activities done and to be done, and whose design may also change in accordance with new UNESCO policies and priorities. Additional effort, for cities like Milan that do not have specifically dedicated budgets and offices but work in the UNESCO network from within a public administration, is to provide financial contribution required to cover the annual meeting costs for its staff (one meeting is planned within specific clusters and the other one is general of the whole network), which occur twice a year.
How did the title effect the local literary scene?
The literary scene mostly got enriched of occasions to know and share know-kow and perspectives of professionals in the field of literature from all over the world. Some of these occasions are addressed to the general public and other are focused on professionals.
Belonging to the first category, for example, is Places to Read (for young writers), the UNESCO Milan-based project that involves a different Creative City of Literature for each edition of the Bookcity literary festival to foster the dissemination of its literary heritage. Thanks to it, every year young writers, translators and representatives of institutions related to the world of books come to Milan to share their vision, heritage and work with the general public.
The experience of residencies falls into the second category. The pilot edition of the project dedicated to workers in the field of books brought to Milan 3 young professionals (1 publisher, 1 librarian and 1 bookseller) from 3 different UNESCO Cities of Literature to meet their Italian colleagues who were eager to discuss the state of the art of their work and their market in their respective countries, as well as the most successful policies to support their sector.
What is your focus as a City of Literature?
As previously mentioned, Milan is above all a city of publishing. This is the distinctive feature that was emphasised in the application as evidence of a historical and concrete reality that, even today, constitutes an element of strength and attractiveness it is hoped to consolidate and expand with the designation as Creative City of Literature.
The presence of the most important independent book fair – Bookpride – of a literary event spread throughout the city – BookCity – as well as of publishing houses, literary and translation agencies, publishing distribution companies, small and large bookshops, makes Milan a leading literary production reality in the country, capable of influencing the population's reading levels as well.
Which international relations emerged for your city after joining the Creative Cities Network? Which specific international projects could be initiated as a result?
Just to mention the latest initiative that originated from a long-time partnership consolidated in previous years, in 2023/2024 an exchange project focused on comics was initiated with the UNESCO Creative City of Literature of Angoulême. This project has, first, brought to Milan a team of renowned French cartoonists who took part with talks and activities in the largest event in Milan dedicated to reading (Bookcity). Some weeks after, the Unesco city of Milan, viceversa, brought to the 51st edition of the world-famous Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême a team of illustrators to represent the long-standing comics tradition of the city. As part of the Festival programme, such "ambassadors” made dedications, panel discussions, radio interviews and drawing battles for 3 days. This offered both Milan and one of its longest-standing literary souls an unparalleled limelight.
In your opinion, what are the benefits of such a cultural exchange?
The benefits lie primarily in the exchange and circulation of ideas between very different realities with positive effects in terms of creativity in services.
Deepening the city's knowledge of libraries, bookshops, festivals, and events dedicated to reading, in fact, allows broadening the spectrum of solutions and ways of realising new ideas or to bring innovative elements to initiatives taking place in the city; it also allows city's professionals to come in contact with their international counterparts who can become referents for new collaborations.
Do you know the city of Bremen? What do you think: What makes Bremen a City of Literature?
Unfortunately, we don’t know that much about Bremen apart from its very well known literary tradition, and that is right exactly what UNESCO cluster of literature is born for: the cities get to know each other more deeply, and leverage the features that got them nominated by UNESCO to foster projects together for the future.
We are looking forward to meeting our new colleagues of this city which recently joined our network!
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