Poetry in Public: A New Collaboration with Ellen Deckwitz

Ellen Deckwitz with the Poem Booth in Turin - Photo by Robin Block

How the Poem Booth brings poetry to the street, with one of the Netherlands’ most celebrated writers

We’re excited to announce a new collaboration with Ellen Deckwitz — acclaimed poet, columnist for NRC, current city poet of Amsterdam, and recipient of the prestigious Italian Premio Ciampi for her collection Hogere Natuurkunde. Her work is known for its clarity, wit, and emotional depth, and now, for the first time, it’s being brought into a completely new context: the Poem Booth.

The Poem Booth is not a traditional poetry installation. Inspired by the old photo booths found in train stations, it’s a machine that writes poetry — not generically, but personally. Press a button, and it generates a poem written about you. Not a gimmick, but a moment of reflection. Something unexpected, in a language that resonates.

Ellen gave us something incredibly generous: access to her entire body of poetic work. Not to quote, but to learn from. We worked closely with her to develop a prompt — the hidden mechanism behind the Poem Booth — that would allow a language model to write poems inspired by her voice and tone. In our first tests, the results weren’t there yet. It turned out Ellen’s poetry was so precise, so layered, that the model struggled to replicate its clarity. Eventually, by letting the model adapt the prompt based on her writing — rather than constraining it — the results became significantly more convincing.

Ellen was intrigued by this process. She’s passionate about new technology, but even more about keeping poetry accessible. She sees the Poem Booth not as a replacement, but as a new way of sharing her work — of bringing poetry to people who might not otherwise open a poetry book. “It’s about pulling poetry out of the page,” she told us, “and into the public space.”

It’s about pulling poetry out of the page and into the public space.”

- Ellen Deckwitz, city poet of Amsterdam

That’s where we believe the Poem Booth truly lives — not just as an artwork, but as an apparatus of encounter. It’s not something to be used alone, like an app. It’s a public moment, shared. You stand in front of the mirror, the machine sees you, a poem appears — and suddenly you’re reading it out loud. With friends, strangers, others around. That shared reading, that brief connection, is what gives the experience meaning.

Stefano Musilli - Cultural Affairs Officer (The Netherlands) with Ellen Deckwitz (poet) and Justus Bruns (co-founder VOUW) - Photo by Robin Block

The first poems in this collaboration were presented in Italian at the Salone Internazionale del Libro in Turin, with the help of a literary translator who adapted the language rhythmically and melodically for an Italian audience. Over 8,000 poems were generated in just a few days. The project was supported by the Dutch Foundation for Literature and the Dutch Embassy in Italy as part of a broader mission to make Dutch literature visible abroad.

But for us, the true impact lies elsewhere.

In an age of fleeting messages and infinite scrolls, the Poem Booth offers something unexpectedly lasting. Not just the printed poem — but the feeling it creates. A pause. A presence. A moment of connection.

Technology doesn’t have to isolate. It can bring us together. Especially when it’s in service of something as human — and necessary — as poetry.