Chinese people generally believed that Gao was awarded this prize because of the political leanings in his literary works.

BBC: China morning round-up: Nobel Literature Prize to China

Literary works of poetry and prose in Arabic, Persian and Uzbek are also predominant in the collection.

UNESCO: CULTURE

This includes protection in the field of literary, scientific and artistic works, including writings, musical, dramatic and cinematographic works, and paintings, engravings and sculpture.

UNESCO: UK National Commission for UNESCO - UNESCO Conventions, Recommendations & Declarations in the UK

On a slightly lesser comedic level, the 50, 000-volume literary center has also recently installed lyrical works in Little Rock and New Orleans and hosted such notables as Anne Carson and Thomax Lux, shown above, reading poetry on the Brooklyn Bridge.

FORBES: A Poetry Bonanza in Lower Manhattan

His emphasis is on "cultural literacy" - certain facts, ideas and literary works that he says people need to know in order to operate effectively as citizens of the country in which they live - and learning in a highly structured way.

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All those artistic and literary greats cavorting in a city that seems purpose-built to inspire how could they not create works we hold up as true art?

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Numerous Spanish celebrities and well known public figures are taking part in a marathon 48-hour reading session of one of the Spanish-speaking world's most famous literary works, Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote.

BBC: Marathon read for Don Quixote

In Wales, there will be a theatre tour of A Child's Christmas in Wales, new productions of some of the poet's works including Under Milk Wood, a series of activities centred on the Boathouse in Laugharne, including a literary public tour.

BBC: Dylan Thomas