Following the evaluation of the World Book Capital Advisory Committee, the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, has designated Strasbourg (France) as World Book Capital for 2024.
Following Guadalajara (Mexico) in 2022 and the city of Accra (Ghana) in 2023, Strasbourg has been selected as World Book Capital due to its focus on books to meet the challenges of social tensions and climate change, with programs like ‘Reading for the Planet’. The city emphasizes books’ ability to encourage debate and discussion of environmental concerns and scientific knowledge, focusing on young people as agents of change, making it the perfect city to show the power of literature today.
The UNESCO World Book Capital Advisory Committee comprises representatives of European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF), the International Authors Forum (IAF), the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), the International Publishers Association (IPA), and UNESCO.
As the twenty-fourth city to bear the title since 2001, Strasbourg follows Madrid (2001), Alexandria (2002), New Delhi (2003), Antwerp (2004), Montreal (2005), Turin (2006), Bogota (2007), Amsterdam (2008), Beirut (2009), Ljubljana (2010), Buenos Aires (2011), Erevan (2012), Bangkok (2013), Port Harcourt (2014), Incheon (2015), Wroclaw (2016), Conakry (2017), Athens (2018), Sharjah, (2019), Kuala Lumpur (2020), Tbilisi (2021), Guadalajara (2022) and Accra (2023).
Find more about UNESCO World Book capital here.