In 2020, 5 years have passed since Ulyanovsk received the status of a UNESCO City of Literature. Today, Ulyanovsk remains the only literary city in Russia, working with like-minded people from 39 such cities around the world and recognizing literature and creativity as the most important elements of urban development. On the occasion of the 5th anniversary, we prepared a short video with the participation of our friends, Ulyanovsk and foreign partners, and also remembered what literature has brought to the life of Ulyanovsk and its residents during these 5 years.

Watch the video in which you can ride the Literary Tram around Ulyanovsk and listen to writers, poets, editors and our colleagues from other UNESCO literary cities! (Illustrations by Yulia Uzryutova).

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Recall that in 2015 the Ulyanovsk region also became the most reading region of Russia. On November 14, 2019, the region received the honorary status "Territory of Books and Reading". In continuation of literary traditions, the new year 2021 has been declared the “Year of the Book” in the region.

The Ulyanovsk - UNESCO City of Literature program has become a platform for integration processes that bring together urban and regional cultural organizations, libraries, public organizations, businesses, and literary figures. Ulyanovsk authors have the opportunity to participate in many literary projects of UNESCO Creative Cities, and readers have the opportunity to meet new writers from around the world.

2015-2020: how it was

Every year, together with the partners of the program, more than 50 literary events were held, the participants and spectators of which were more than 200,000 people. Over the course of 5 years, sociological studies were organized on issues of reading, accessibility of library services, and digitalization. 6 electronic reading rooms were opened in city libraries, where citizens learned computer literacy and got access to the national electronic library.

Much attention is paid to updating libraries. So, in 2019, two city libraries were modernized, in 2020 - Goncharov Central Library. 25 million rubles were allocated for the modernization of three libraries, including 20 million rubles from the federal budget, 5 million rubles from the local budget.

To support local authors, 38 titles of books were published with a total circulation of 17,900 copies. Literary magazine "Simbirsk" published a column with literary news from the program "Ulyanovsk - UNESCO City of Literature". Also, the directorate of the program weekly carries out the information e-mail newsletter Writer's Info Point, through which local writers learn about residences, competitions, awards, literary news, and readers get acquainted with the literary poster of Ulyanovsk.

During the pandemic, the city’s literary events went online: for example, in 2020, the Amphibrach Literary Festival with the participation of famous local and Russian authors was broadcast online and gathered thousands of views.

The international cooperation

During the program, Ulyanovsk has organized more than 20 major international events, including those related to literature and the creative industries. Ulyanovsk annually takes part in the International Conferences of UNESCO Literary Cities, as well as in the International Conferences of UNESCO Literary Cities, а также в the International Meetings of the Creative Cities of the Network. Представители города участвовали в рабочих встречах с коллегами из городов: Baghdad, Heidelberg, Granada, Ljubljana and others.

In 2020, Ulyanovsk organized the International Online Exhibition "The City as a Workplace for Writers", which brought together 100 images from authors and artists from around the world.

In 2019, the International Literary Residence was opened in Ulyanovsk, whose activities are aimed at developing international cooperation in the field of literature and culture. Its first guests were well-known poets from Ljubljana and Dunedin – Andrej Hočevar и David Howard. Due to the pandemic, the work of new residents in the city - British poet and translator James Womack and artist, translator from Melbourne Mike Wingrave - has been postponed to 2021.

In 2020, the International Children's Literary Residence was also opened in Ulyanovsk. 20 authors (10 offline and 10 online) aged 11 to 16 and librarians-curators became participants in the educational intensive.

Literary events were also organized at the sites of the International Cultural Forum in Ulyanovsk, held by the Ulyanovsk - Cultural Capital Foundation. Thus, in 2020, the Forum hosted the online platform “Culture VS Pandemic” organized by the Ulyanovsk – UNESCO City of Literature program. Literary events also became part of the program of the Festival "Days of Germany" in Ulyanovsk.

In 2019, the directorate of the program "Ulyanovsk - UNESCO City of Literature" created the international literary co-working Literary Hall – a platform for work and meetings of literary and cultural figures. In 2020, Ulyanovsk joined the international video installation in Gwangju (UNESCO City of Media Arts in South Korea), dedicated to projects reflecting the process of culture transformation in the era of the pandemic, and the international project Modern International Multilingual Library Museum in Slemani, Iraq. Local authors also took part in the Literature Without Borders online project.

The UNESCO City of Literature status opened up new international opportunities for Ulyanovsk writers. 

They regularly take part in network projects, including: a poetry exhibition in Reykjavik, the Poetry Bus project (Tartu), the Summer Book List project, the 20 Poets and 20 Cities project (Nottingham), World Poetry Day, International Literacy Day, World Book Day, Seattle Video Poetry Festival, “You Will Remain” International Anthology, Ventspils, Ljubljana and Nanjing Literary Residences, Slamvision, International Short Film Festivals in Bradford (UK), Santos (Brazil), Angel-La Bense (France), Antalya (Turkey), Joa Pessoa (Brazil), the international literary project "The Possibilities" (Dunedin, New Zealand) and others. Poetry from Ulyanovsk was included in the International Manuscript Collection of Authors of Literary Cities of UNESCO.

Literary interventions

One of the main highlights of the program is "Literary Interventions": events that include literature in the public space. So, in 2016-2017, the following actions were held on the streets of the city: “Shakespeare: Reading a Genius!”, “Ivanovna Stool”, “Reading Develops Appetite”, the festival of filmstrips “Film”, and the Slovo.Web hackathon was held in the Goncharov Museum. The year 2018 was remembered for the street action "Window to a Fairy Tale". In addition, illustrations for Russian and foreign fairy tales appeared on the streets of Ulyanovsk. The urban space has become a platform for literary picnics and the literary festival "Pushkin in the city of U."

The “Literary Tram” event has already become traditional – an opportunity to make a night trip by public transport into the world of modern literature and get acquainted with the works of authors from UNESCO cities of literature. In 2019, the Literary Trolleybus was organized for the first time in the New City.

In 2018-2020, several literary stops, graffiti, an art object "Lantern - Library" for bookcrossing, a poetic arch appeared on the streets of Ulyanovsk, and a "Literary Bus" with a poem by the poet Nikolai Blagov appeared at the bus station. In 2019, a literary map of the city of Ulyanovsk was created, which was presented at the International Meeting of Creative Cities of UNESCO in Fabriano and is now being distributed in the tourist places of the city. Litkarta is also presented on the Poetic Alley near the Goncharov House. In 2020, the projection of the poet Joseph Brodsky "walked" through the streets of Ulyanovsk.

What's next?

The vectors of the program "Ulyanovsk - UNESCO City of Literature" for the next years will be: targeting the residents of the city and popularizing reading; expansion of international cooperation; the infiltration of literature into the public spaces of the city; development of a modern infrastructure for reading and increasing the availability of books through the modernization of city libraries; support of Ulyanovsk authors.

It is planned to implement a project to create a literary center "Minaev's House", establish mini-grants for Ulyanovsk writers in order to implement creative initiatives, organize online meetings with foreign authors, modernize library No. 17 "Commonwealth", develop cooperation with Kazan - the city of music of UNESCO, and the city of Kargopol, the UNESCO City of Crafts.

In 2021, Ulyanovsk poets and writers will take part in the International Online Exhibition on the occasion of the opening of the Manchester Poetry Library, International Poetry Day, the International Project "UNESCO Cities of Literature" in the famous Spanish magazine Quimera, an online meeting with colleagues from Melbourne, International Book Day, the work of the International Literary Residence in Ulyanovsk, the International Literary Residence in Tartu, the International Literary Tram, the Poetry Bus campaign in Tartu and other projects of UNESCO cities of literature. Also, the works of Ulyanovsk artists will be part of the exposition of the International Exhibition of Comics on the theme “The City after the Pandemic” at the Angouleme Comics Festival in France.

The “Year of the Book” will be opened in Ulyanovsk in January 2021 by the “International Literary Skating Rink” - poems by authors from Ulyanovsk and 14 UNESCO literary cities in their native languages ​​will be heard on the city’s skating rinks (Ulyanovsk residents will also hear the voices of authors of world bestsellers). This is another event that brings literature into the urban space and is a reminder of the unifying role of literature during the pandemic. Details, a list of participants from Ulyanovsk and cities of literature from different countries, as well as registration will be announced later.

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Ulyanovsk authors and literature lovers receive weekly literature, information about literature news, local authors, master classes, competitions and residencies from the directorate of the program "Ulyanovsk - UNESCO City of Literature" through the Writer's Info Point free mailing list. To subscribe to it, just send an email to infopoint.ulskcityofliterature@gmail.com