CCN Melbourne Application Lit

UNESCO City of Literature Melbourne Melbourne City of Literature submission Shelly Gorr (point person) Andrew Campbell Published by Arts Victoria. Communications & Marketing A/g Assistant Director – Arts Victoria Policy & Strategy Projects This publication is copyright. No part Tel: +61 3 9954 5064 Department of Premier & Cabinet may be reproduced by any process [email protected] except in accordance with provisions Sandy Grant of the Copyright Act 1968. Stuart Koop (point person) CEO Senior Project Manager Hardie Grant Publishing © Copyright: the State of Victoria 2008 Arts Victoria Penny Hutchinson All information contained in this publication Tel: +61 3 9954 5062 Director is considered correct at the time of printing. [email protected] Arts Victoria Arts Victoria Management Committee Kirsty Murray Private Bag 1 Author South Melbourne Greg Andrews Victoria Deputy Director Mark Rubbo OAM Australia 3205 Arts Victoria Managing Director Telephone: +61 3 9954 5000 Tom Bentley Readings Books and Music Facsimile: +61 3 9686 6186 Executive Director – Policy & Cabinet Anne-Marie Schwirtlich [email protected] (until December 2007) CEO/State Librarian www.arts.vic.gov.au Department of Premier & Cabinet State Library of Victoria Anne-Marie Schwirtlich Bob Sessions CEO/State Librarian Publishing Director State Library of Victoria Penguin Group (Australia) Steering Committee Rohini Sharma Artistic Director (until September 2007) Eric Beecher (Committee Chair) Express Media Private Media Partners Carrie Tiffany Joel Becker Author Director Victorian Writers’ Centre Michael Webster Senior Lecturer, RMIT Morris Bellamy Principal Consultant, Nielsen BookScan Manager Arts & Culture City of Melbourne Tom Bentley Submission writers: Urszula Dawkins, Executive Director – Policy & Cabinet Steve Grimwade, Stuart Koop, (until December 2007) Dr Greg Kratzmann Department of Premier & Cabinet Editors: Hilary Ericksen, Sally Moss Grant Caldwell Publication design: Actual Size Board member Date of submission: February 2008 Australian Poetry Centre Rosemary Cameron Director/CEO Melbourne Writers’ Festival ii UNESCO City of Literature Melbourne iii Executive Summary iv Melbourne Mr Tulk. Photo: Mark Chew As a city of excellence and extraordinary Australia and internationally, and are diversity in literary activity, Melbourne fully resourced to engage with UNESCO’s is an ideal candidate for UNESCO City Creative Cities Network as a City of of Literature status. The capital of the Literature. Victorian Government initia- south-eastern state of Victoria and a tives have recently been announced that major business centre within the Asia– will strengthen the city’s position as a Pacific region, it is widely acknowledged City of Literature. This submission, in as Australia’s cultural capital. addition to profiling Melbourne’s current Melbourne is a vibrant arena for the literary landscape and activities, details creation of literary works. Its writers these government initiatives and plans are supported by a robust publishing for the future. environment, including a large number Key areas for UNESCO’s consideration of independent and small publishers, are Melbourne’s distinct cultural and lit- and by the public’s broad participation erary history, its particular strengths and in literature – as readers, writers and track record in literary production and audiences at events and festivals. the ways in which it aims to share and At an administrative level, the enhance its literary strengths through Victorian Government and the City of international collaboration and exchange Melbourne are highly active in cultural in the future. development and exchange, both within v Melbourne’s literary pedigree writers continued to look to the ‘old Founded in 1835 on the banks of the Yarra country’, while depictions of the ‘new’ River, Melbourne quickly grew from a played an important part in establishing small settlement to a burgeoning colonial a distinctive Australian literature. city, greatly stimulated by the Victorian Since World War II, writers of increas- gold rush of the 1850s. During the course ingly diverse influences and backgrounds of the 20th century, Melbourne evolved have contributed to the richly multicul- from a great Victorian-era city – known tural literary landscape of Melbourne as ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ – to a culturally (more than any other Australian city), diverse, major metropolis. Throughout in which both the differences and the the century, successive waves of immi- commonalities of dispersed peoples’ gration from many countries made experience feature strongly. The expan- enormous contributions to the city’s sion of local publishing in the postwar multicultural landscape – as they still period has also added to the diversity of do today. Melbourne’s literary output, encourag- Over time Melbourne’s literature has ing and promoting a wide variety of evolved from a literature of displacement genres and cultural expressions. The to one of diaspora, transforming the earlier notion of Britain as the source of experiences of immigrants into diverse Melbourne’s literary heritage has become narratives of struggle, self-definition, increasingly obsolete; immigrants and identity and belonging. During the 19th their descendants increasingly express century, many writers sought to convey in literature their complex relationships news and descriptions of the ‘colony’ to to many ‘homelands’ throughout Europe, readers in the ‘mother country’, at the Asia, the Middle East and beyond. At the same time beginning to define Melbourne’s same time, Melbourne itself is indisput- landscape and society through its dif- ably ‘home’ for these and many other ferences from ‘home’. In the early 20th writers, and the city’s contemporary century, the literary descendants of early literature reflects both cultural diversity vi Federation Square, the Yarra River and Melbourne’s arts precinct. Photo: Peter Dunphy and a transcending of cultural boundar- the city’s cultural life. Smaller, interest- ies, with Indigenous writers extending based associations and specialist centres border-crossing themes and genres. for excellence also abound, serving Writers in contemporary Melbourne writers and literary professionals of all are supported by a vital literary industry kinds and further strengthening the city’s and an urban cultural environment that literary industries. hosts an endless round of literary events, Melbourne’s local public libraries activities and opportunities. Melbourne’s inspire and support public participation literary publishing sector is by far the in literature throughout the city and largest in Australia, with education and suburbs: more people borrow more books children’s publishing demonstrating from local libraries in Melbourne than impressive strength. A healthy industry anywhere else in Australia. Activities in featuring multinational publishers like local libraries include writing workshops, Penguin and Lonely Planet, as well as storytelling sessions and book-reading notable independent book publishers such clubs, to name a few. Libraries also as Text Publishing, Hardie Grant, Black devote significant resources to providing Inc., Melbourne University Publishing access to literature through mobile and Scribe Publications, is enriched by library programs and the maintenance of energetic high-quality small presses and collections in community languages and smaller independent publishers of books, in large-print and audio-book formats. journals and magazines. Complementing Independent booksellers enjoy a sig- a very active publishing environment is nificant market share in Australia, adding a large array of literature-related profes- to the strength and diversity of the retail sional organisations, with the Victorian sector. Melbourne, in particular, is home Writers’ Centre, Express Media, the Centre to many successful independent and for Youth Literature at the State Library specialty bookshops, as well as to a thriv- of Victoria and the Australian Poetry ing second-hand trade: Melbourne boasts Centre all making major contributions to more bookshops per head of population vii than anywhere else in the country. It is not Melbourne is home to a number of surprising that Melbourne also enjoys major cultural institutions, including the country’s highest concentration of Melbourne Museum, the Arts Centre, community book clubs. the National Gallery of Victoria, the Melbourne has a formidable track Immigration Museum and the Australian record in presenting major literary Centre for the Moving Image. The most festivals, with nationally significant significant of the city’s institutions in events such as the Melbourne Writers’ terms of the literature of Melbourne is Festival, the Overload Poetry Festival, the the State Library of Victoria. Alfred Deakin Innovation Lectures and The first major cultural institution to the Emerging Writers’ Festival comple- be established in Melbourne, the State mented by a calendar of diverse smaller, Library has, since its founding in 1854, specialised festivals and celebrations. acquired a large collection of books, Myriad spoken-word events take place manuscripts and other literary and throughout the city year-round, exceeding historical material, with a strong focus the levels of such activity in many larger on items from Melbourne and Victoria. It cities worldwide. Melbourne’s print, elec- is the city’s major literary repository and tronic and online media outlets further a highly active centre for participation

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