This quote comes from Kari Dickson’s translation of Rune Christiansen’s beautiful novel, The Loneliness in Lydia Erneman’s Life (Book*hug Press, 2023) and I had been considering these words a lot before my trip to Melbourne for the UNESCO Cities of Literature Literary Programmers Roundtable. During my week exploring Melbourne’s literary scene I thought about how space moulds and defines a City of Literature, perhaps more than time and history. Space in terms of the gardens, the markets, the book shops, the festivals and, perhaps the most important spaces, the coffee shops.

The UNESCO Cities of Literature Literary Programmers Roundtable featured seven international programmers from Cities of Literature around the world (Dunedin, Edinburgh, Iowa City, Krakow, Manchester, Norwich and Quebec City), and also a group of local literary programmers from across Victoria. We came together from cities that house communities of storytellers exploring words in weird and wonderful ways, bringing people together in a variety of exciting spaces, both in-person and on the page.

Before the roundtable officially began, I spent an afternoon in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens. After a very long 36-hour journey I needed to take a long walk and be in nature to decompress. I’d never been to Australia and the first thing that struck me was the sound of the birds, birdsong so different to that of Norfolk. Within minutes of entering the gardens, a large group of provocatively noisy cockatoos flew over, instantly ruining the vision of a calm tranquil excursion. I have just learnt that a group of cockatoos is officially called a crackle – this makes complete sense! I spent a good few hours exploring the site that stretches for over 90 acres and took some time to people-watch. My favourite big cities are those with green spaces that give you room to breathe and a cocoon to hide in amongst the never-ending height of it all. Sometimes the most inspiration comes from the spaces between or even the empty spaces.

Libraries are an integral part of the Melbourne literary landscape, just as they are in Norwich. The State Library of Victoria is spectacular in its size; the La Trobe Reading Room must be one of the most instagrammed reading rooms on earth. We were given a behind the scenes tour of the library from the, currently closed to the public, sixth floor of the magnificent dome down to the catacomb’s storage facility. We had the privilege of using the staff-only ‘Elephant lift’ designed in 1928 to transport large taxidermied animal specimens, including elephants, when the building used to house the Melbourne Museum. However, the famous State Library isn’t the only impressive library in the city and we visited one of the newest, the narrm ngarrgu Library, close to the delectable Queen Victoria Market, bustling with its fruit and veg stalls and artisanal foodie delights. This public library only opened in 2023 and was designed to honour and celebrate the First Nations community. Its name translates to ‘Melbourne Knowledge’ in Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung language. It is housed in a beautiful new building with First Nations literature at the forefront of its spaces. They have podcast studios and a free makers studio where the general public can make all sorts of crafts for free. It’s an exciting place that is only just beginning to spread its wings, with the freedom to programme some extraordinary events and activities. Its a creative and buzzing space that feels alive and full of possibility.

I’m writing this blog post not long after reading Dieter Rogiers’ piece entitled ‘Norwich, in Slow Sips’, where he records the amount he has managed to write in each coffee shop he visits in Norwich during his residency. One of my hosts in Melbourne told me before I arrived that Melburnians are coffee snobs. How would you define us in Norwich in a culinary sense? Are we Mustard connoisseurs? Authorities of Bread Source? Cromer Crab warriors? Coffee shops are quite clearly important spaces when it comes to fuelling culture in Melbourne, and they certainly do coffee in style!

Greater Melbourne is home to a vast array of literary festivals with something for everyone. We met the programmers of Rare Book Week, Willy Lit Fest, Queenscliffe Literary Festival and A Day in Carlton and were inspired by the breadth of activities and events taking place. We had the honour of attending the opening night of Melbourne Writers Festival, as well as many other festival events taking place across the city over the weekend. My favourite was Acoustic Mirrors: An Afternoon of Poetry and Music, curated by Panda Wong and Hannah Wu aka lotus threads. It was a joyous couple of hours spent with poets and musicians from around the world working in harmony. It felt fresh, warm and welcoming.

I have so much to highlight from this trip, with a special shout-out to Kids Own Publishing, doing amazing work with local communities to publish multilingual books – ‘changing the world one book at a time’. But the final spaces that I wanted to mention are the independent bookshops. How can you talk about a UNESCO City of Literature without celebrating the work of independent booksellers that so carefully curate their spaces to inspire readers? We started our week with a guided tour of some of the city’s most-loved bookshops, from Readings, so clearly a Melbourne institution, to Amplify, a new and vibrant bookshop blossoming in the city. Marina and Xuan set up the shop ‘because as Women of Colour, we recognised how difficult it was to find books written by people like us, or with characters that looked like us. So now we have Amplify: a space dedicated to making it easier for you to find BIPOC authors and books you can see yourself reflected in.’ The team at Amplify run a sell-out literary speed-dating night that sounds like brilliant fun.

I wanted to briefly share some of the spaces I was introduced to on my trip to Melbourne, both literary and culinary, as they undoubtedly change the lives of those living in the city and also the work created and consumed there. What spaces are changing you?