Its good to know there are standards. Everyone doesn't need a trophy.

Ryan Boudinot blew that for you's.

I'm really confused by UNESCOs selections—by what metric is Iowa City culturally the most (and apparently only, baring gastronomy) important place in America? How would membership in this bizarre club benefit Seattle writers or publishers?

I had no idea this whole "City of Literature" thing was about chasing some silly UNESCO designation. But I guess it makes sense, because Seattle had no music scene that anybody knew or cared about until UNESCO declared it a City of Rock.

That won't work here. Seattle is different!

Except when Seattle is not different. Then "Seattle’s middle-ness is an essential component of its charm." Essential!

Yeah, that's it. So different, yet so charmingly mediocre. Keep telling yourselves that, Denver-on-Puget-Sound.

Seattleites generally read a lot of [mostly] mediocre contemporary fiction.

Just because a lot of people read in Seattle doesn't make it a great "literary city" (whatever that even really means...).

@5 That University of Iowa's Writer Workshop is in Iowa City. Don't judge a book by its cover as they say.