Key Information
Counties:
CeredigionYear of Inscription:
2025Link to Website:
cityofliterature.wales/home
Aberystwyth Ceredigion UNESCO City of Literature
Edged by 80km of coastline and rising to the Cambrian mountains, Ceredigion is home to 72,000 people and welcomes many thousands more visitors and students every year. As the first area in Wales to be recognised by the UNESCO Creative City Network, the significance of the City of Literature designation goes beyond Aberystwyth and Ceredigion, propelling the literary heritage of the whole country onto the global stage.
What makes this UNESCO Designation special?
The City is steeped in poetry and literature - this is where Dafydd ap Gwilym, the 14th-century poet, took the craft of ‘canu caeth’ poetry (unique to the Welsh language) to a new level of brilliance; this is where you can find the bronze age tumulus known as Bedd Taliesin, the grave of the enigmatic 6th- century poet who shape-shifted his way through the Celtic imagination to the present day. Myths and legends have deep roots here; and ancient Welsh manuscripts remind us that this City of Literature is the site of the drowned lands of Cantre’r Gwaelod, and of elements of the Mabinogi tales - considered to be among the best examples of storytelling in medieval Europe. Today, poetry is at our feet as we walk our promenades and enlivens the walls of our towns. Aberystwyth itself can claim connection to 300 poets and is the first Welsh town to employ a Town Poet.
Literary culture, expressed in both Welsh and English, is at the heart of daily life here in Aberystwyth Ceredigion, where a vibrant infrastructure of festivals, bookshops, theatres, cultural events, lectures, centres of literary excellence and research, publishing, poetry and writing connects all parts of the county. It is home to a high concentration of publishers, as well as to Welsh literary institutions of national and international importance including the National Library of Wales and the Books Council of Wales. The University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David is an international centre of excellence for Celtic Studies, and Aberystwyth University is world-renowned for its excellence in teaching and research in languages and literature, including Welsh, English and Creative Writing. Through Wales Literature Exchange and Literature Across Frontiers we connect Wales to the world and share literature from Wales with new audiences through translation.
We live and breathe culture and creativity, and we look forward to inviting the world to delight in the democracy of our unique literary scene and, through new networks, expand our engagement in the joy and power of literature.
