How to build a City of Literature: ‘There was no blueprint on how to do it’
Edinburgh literary hero Ali Bowden on backing writers and the grassroots work which built a worldwide phenomena
It’s tempting to think of this year’s winner of the prestigious Edinburgh Award as a gardener, metaphorically speaking. After all, Ali Bowden took the seedling of an idea and nurtured its growth into a global success, rooted in Edinburgh but with branches around the world.
The Edinburgh City of Literature Trust, made up of four founding trustees - Jenny Brown, James Boyle, Lorraine Fanin and Catherine Lockerbie - had the idea to create a UNESCO City of Literature with Scotland’s Capital the founding member… but founding member of what?
It could have been something that flowered briefly for a year. But that initial Board of Trustees appointed Ali Bowden as Director of Edinburgh UNESCO in 2006 and she quickly recognised that shape and substance had to be applied to the idea through sheer graft. After all, without hard work nothing really grows but weeds.
Ali told us: “The ambition was there. The original trustees deserve all the credit for getting it established, and my job, in partnership with a lot of other people, was to put in the hard work to make it happen.” And boy, did she.
Edinburgh had been named the world’s first UNESCO Creative City in 2004, the City of Literature two years later. After her appointment Ali served in the role for 18 years, leaving last year to take up a new challenge. In that time Ali has welcomed new Cities of Literature as they joined the network, recruiting others from around the world in a bid to diversify. There are now 63 literary cities - ten announced in the past 48 hours - amongst more than 400 creative cities in seven artforms.
Forging links
She’s created award-winning initiatives and programmes, and forged international links that benefit writers to this day.
That is quite the blossoming of an idea, and the achievement has earned Ali the city’s recognition. She is due to receive this year’s Edinburgh Award in the coming days – following in the footsteps of literary figures like Sir Ian Rankin (the first recipient), JK Rowling, and Alexander McCall Smith, as well as others from sport, business, art, science and academia and civic life.
The current Chair of the Board of Trustees has witnessed Ali in action. Ruth Plowden said: “As the Director of the first UNESCO Creative City in the world, Ali not only shaped Edinburgh’s literary community but sat at the apex of the global network, counselling aspiring cities from around the world, welcoming them as they joined, and forging a collaborative and supportive international community. She is held in high esteem by her UNESCO colleagues and has often represented Edinburgh on a global stage.
“At home, Ali produced programmes and projects to enhance the literary city but was also content to be the glue behind the scenes, making connections, publicising opportunities, and platforming the work of others to enable literary Edinburgh to thrive. Many of the city’s authors, poets and arts professionals are in her debt. We are delighted that the City of Edinburgh has chosen to honour her in this way.”
Among the writers which Ali and the City of Literature championed which might be on your bookshelf today are Angela Jackson, Kirsty Innes and Vivian Jing Ye.
Terrifying and brilliant
Edinburgh was certainly worthy of its founding status. The city of Scott and Stevenson, that gave the world Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus, the uptight middle-class drama of Muriel Spark’s Miss Jean Brodie to the working-class chaos of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting. A city awash with book festivals from the globally renowned to the locally inspired, with a national storytelling centre and a Scottish poetry museum.
Ali had enjoyed a ten-year career in publishing before taking on the role – a challenge she couldn’t resist. “It was a world first. There was no blueprint on how to do it, no-one you could call to see what they’d done. That made it both terrifying and brilliant.
“So we started with the city’s literary community, which had real depth and talent then as it does now, and we asked them what they saw as possible. It was all about working at a grassroots level, building on the incredible community that was already here.”
There are many things Ali can look back on with pride, but she does have a few favourites and these include creating community-based writers’ residencies, the first citywide reading campaign involving the capital’s schools, the Stars & Stories trail of illuminated quotations celebrating 500 years of Edinburgh’s publishing heritage, and an initiative with ETAG to promote literary tourism.
One standout happened in 2014, to mark the 10th anniversary of the UNESCO City of Literature designation. Great Scott! covered the floors, walls and windows of Edinburgh’s Waverley Station - the only railway station in the world named after a novel - with the wit and wisdom of the writer of that book, Sir Walter Scott.
Capturing imaginations
The project also marked the 200th anniversary of the publication of Waverley and the opening of the Borders railway line. Great Scott! won The City Award 2014 from Creative Edinburgh, which recognises an outstanding creative contribution to the city.
Ali told us: “That really captured people’s imagination. The reaction was so positive, and of course some of the installation has been preserved within the station way beyond what was originally intended, being viewed by the millions of people who use the station every year.”
She will be presented with the Edinburgh Award on Tuesday by the City’s Lord Provost Robert Aldridge, who told us: “Edinburgh blazed a trail when it became the first UNESCO Creative City in 2004 and with Ali at the helm for almost 20 years it has continued to flourish in this position.
“Not only has Ali gone above and beyond to create a diverse and engaging range of projects and programmes to enhance the literary city, she has played a key role in connecting Edinburgh with other literary cities around the world. We will all benefit from her legacy, which builds on the Capital’s rich literary heritage while also bringing reading and literature to new and varied audiences.”
As well as being presented with an engraved loving cup – or quaich – Ali will have her handprints immortalised in the paving stones outside the City Chambers, joining the likes of Sir Chris Hoy, Sir Tom Farmer, Peter Higgs, Ken Buchanan and Richard DeMarco.
She said: “There’s no doubt that Edinburgh has stolen my heart, and I’ve happily spent the last few decades banging the drum for this impressive, bookish, story-filled and ever-changing city. I am humbled, honoured and delighted - in equal measure - to be receiving the Edinburgh Award. I know it’s only possible because of all the kind souls I’ve worked with over the years, on projects big and small, locally and internationally. All of them equally inspired by Edinburgh, this amazing, and first, City of Literature.”
Born in Scotland’s south-west, she is now working as the Research & Enterprise Strategy Programme Manager at Heriot-Watt University. “It’s another exciting challenge, working here in Edinburgh with talented and dedicated people who are looking to change the world for the better.”