The book Poetic Encounters was created by the UNESCO Cities of Literature with special editorial assistance from the UNESCO City of Literature Heidelberg, and was donated to the UNESCO Creative Cities of Krakow and Katowice which hosted the XII Annual Meeting of the Creative Cities Network UNESCO in June 2018.  

The book brings together the work of fifty-one poets, from 28 UNESCO Cities of Literature, who have come together to celebrate the spirit of collaboration that underpins the UCCN and to support linguistic diversity through poetic expressions from around the world. All the texts were written or printed on beautiful artisan paper from Fabriano, the UNESCO City of Crafts and Popular Art, which also took care of the layout and binding. Furthermore, the authors were filmed while transcribing their work on Fabriano paper and a video was produced, curated by Tel Aviv UNESCO City of Media Arts, with music provided by Mannheim UNESCO City of Music, which summarized the project and the cooperation between UNESCO Creative Cities.  

Poetic Encounters it is a collegial work dedicated to all those in the world who are committed to enhancing the power and richness of literature and supporting freedom of thought and speech.