Once synonymous with Pablo Escobar’s drug cartels, Medellin – Colombia’s second-largest city – will soon embrace a new identity imbued with ink rather than blood after UNESCO designated it the World Book Capital for 2027.
The city of “Eternal Spring” is nestled in the Aburra Valley, a mountainous basin in Colombia’s Andes. After decades of drug-cartel conflict in the 20th century, the city has turned a new leaf, leading Colombia’s national reading index and counts over 110 bookstores and 25 libraries within its limits.
Another consideration was that bookstores in Medellin have multiplied by 542% over the past seven decades. Several of the city’s libraries occupy former prisons and police facilities, thereby reinventing spaces associated with repression into sanctuaries of learning.
A parque biblioteca (library park), where a public library was built in the city’s most neglected hillside neighborhoods. (Source: Wikipedia Commons)
The city’s cultural heritage has played a major role in the city’s reinvention. Beginning in 2009, Columbia pioneered the concept of the parque biblioteca — the library park — placing architecturally ambitious public libraries in the city’s most neglected hillside neighborhoods. The celebrated España Library, designed by Columbian architect Giancarlo Mazzanti, became a global symbol of the approach. The model has since been replicated as far afield as Rio de Janeiro. In 2009, the city’s Library Network won the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Access to Learning Award, worth one million dollars.
The civic imagination that built gondola cable cars to connect slum communities to the city center, built libraries to close the distance between the margins and the mainstream. In 2013, the Urban Land Institute declared it the most innovative city in the world. That same year, the Wall Street Journal’s Innovative City of the Year award went to Medellin, beating out New York City and Tel Aviv.
Medellin already hosts a celebrated annual Book and Culture Festival (Fiesta del Libro y la Cultura), held free of charge over 10 days each September in the city’s Botanical Garden, a fitting rehearsal for the global stage it is about to inherit.
World Book Capitals
As the 27th city to carry the title since the programme’s launch in 2001 it is part of a lineagethat includes Alexandria, New Delhi, Buenos Aires and, most recently, Rabat.
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World Book Capitals 2001–2027 (UNESCO)
Year
City
2001
Madrid
2002
Alexandria
2003
New Delhi
2004
Antwerp
2005
Montreal
2006
Turin
2007
Bogota
2008
Amsterdam
2009
Beirut
2010
Ljubljana
2011
Buenos Aires
2012
Erevan
2013
Bangkok
2014
Port Harcourt
2015
Incheon
2016
Wroclaw
2017
Conakry
2018
Athens
2019
Sharjah
2020
Kuala Lumpur
2021
Tbilisi
2022
Guadalajara
2023
Accra
2024
Strasbourg
2025
Rio de Janeiro
2026
Rabat
2027
Medellín
“Books and libraries play a crucial role in bringing positive social change,” said Unesco Director-General Khaled El-Enany, while announcing the 2027 World Book Capital.
Medellín will inaugurate its year of celebrations on April 23, 2027, World Book and Copyright Day.
Aishwarya Khosla is a senior editorial figure at The Indian Express, where she spearheads the digital strategy and execution for the Books & Literature and Puzzles & Games sections. With over eight years of experience in high-stakes journalism, Aishwarya specializes in literary criticism, cultural commentary, and long-form features that explore the complex intersection of identity, politics, and social change.
Aishwarya’s analytical depth is anchored by her prestigious Nehru Fellowship in Politics and Elections. This intensive research fellowship in policy analysis and political communications informs her nuanced approach to cultural journalism, allowing her to provide readers with unique insights into how literature and media reflect broader political shifts.
As a trusted voice for the Indian Express audience, she authors the popular newsletters, Meanwhile, Back Home and Books 'n' Bits, and hosts the podcast series, Casually Obsessed.
Before her current role, Aishwarya spent several years at Hindustan Times, where she provided dedicated coverage of the Punjabi diaspora, theater, and national politics. Her career is defined by a commitment to intellectual rigor, making her a definitive authority on modern Indian culture and letters.
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Literary Criticism, Cultural Politics, Political Strategy, Long-form Investigative Features, and Newsletter Curation.
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A parque biblioteca (library park), where a public library was built in the city’s most neglected hillside neighborhoods. (Source: Wikipedia Commons)
