Oxford University Press backs Oxford Book Capital bid

Oxford University Press has backed a bid for Oxford to become UNESCO World Book Capital in 2014.

Since 2001 UNESCO has nominated a World Book Capital City to acknowledge the best year-long programme proposed by a city to promote books and foster reading. Successful programmes involve cooperation with local, national and international professional organizations representing writers, publishers, booksellers and librarians as well as communities and groups which encourage and promote reading.

Oxford and its surrounding county of Oxfordshire have unparalleled resources and world renowned publishing and bookselling enterprises in place to support a programme of this kind, and there are probably more major, culturally diverse, authors based in or around Oxford than in any comparable city in the world.

For centuries, Oxfordshire’s authors have provided people of all ages around the world with timeless tales of imagination, passion and adventure, from Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ to Pullman’s ‘Dark Materials’ trilogy or Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. It’s hard to ignore the rich heritage and impact this staggering literature has had on the world we live in today.

The bid is being co-ordinated by Oxford Inspires – the Cultural Development Agency for Oxfordshire – on behalf of a steering committee made up of Oxford University Press and other partners: The Bodleian Libraries, The Story Museum, Oxfam, University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford Literary Festival, and Blackwell’s.

The bid was announced on Thursday 16th September at a reception held in the 400-year-old Convocation House at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and was attended by authors, heads of local government, publishers and book readers of all ages. The year-long programme would run from April 2014 to April 2015 and would include the openings of new parts of the Bodleian Libraries and the completion of The Story Museum.

A series of public and private consultations is planned over the coming months to galvanize support for the bid. The first opportunity for the general public to have their say will come this week from 17th to 20th September in Bonn Square, central Oxford, when local artist Diana Bell brings her 2-metre-high ‘Big Book’ installation to town. Passers-by will be invited to write their thoughts on the World Book Capital bid and subjects including ‘How do you imagine the future in words?

You can keep up to date with the bid via www.oxfordworldbookcapital.org