Arthur Sze named US poet laureate

Arthur Sze has been named the 25th poet laureate of the United States, reported Publishers Weekly yesterday.

Sze will serve for one year and succeeds Ada Limón, whose term in the role ends in early October.

He is the first Asian American to be appointed to the role.

Sze is a poet, translator and editor. He has written 12 books of poetry, including Sight Lines (Copper Canyon Press), for which he won the National Book Award in Poetry in 2019. Among his other honours, Sze was also awarded the 2024 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, in recognition of lifetime achievement.  

As part of his laureateship, Sze ‘plans to explore the art of translation, with the goal of compiling an anthology of translated poems from various languages and time periods,’ said PW. 

Sze said, ‘I feel like poetry resists all forms of coercion. Poetry is an expression of freedom. And to use our language with emotion and passion and imagination – that’s what I want to do as poet laureate. I feel like if I can do that, I will have made a contribution.’

Category: International news