U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze Reflects on the Importance of Poetry in Our Daily Lives
- Richard Chang
- 12 hours ago
- 9 min read
The decorated and prolific wordsmith will deliver a Creative Edge Lecture March 3 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.
Santa Fe, New Mexico-based poet Arthur Sze – the 25th Poet Laureate of the United States – is the first Asian American to hold that position. He is a second-generation Chinese American, and one of America’s most prolific and decorated living poets.
An educator, editor and translator, Sze, 75, is the author of 12 books of poetry, and has received numerous awards and accolades, including the National Book Award for “Sight Lines” (2019), a 2024 National Book Foundation Science + Literature Award for “The Glass Constellation,” and the American Book Award for “Archipelago” (1995). His collection “Compass Rose” (2014) was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and he received the 2025 Bollingen Prize for lifetime achievement in American poetry. He also holds a prestigious Lannan Literary Award (1995) under his belt.
Sze was a poetry professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe for 22 years, from 1984-2006. (Note: It was during this time that I, as a youngish arts and culture reporter for The Santa Fe New Mexican, first met and became friends with Sze, who has always been very generous with his time and his work.)
As U.S. Poet Laureate, Sze has made appearances across the country, reading his work and promoting poetry at all levels of society. On Tuesday, March 3, Sze will give a live talk at the Irvine Barclay Theatre as part of Arts Orange County’s 16th Annual Creative Edge Lecture. Admission is free, but advance reservations are required through the Barclay’s ticket office.
Culture OC caught up with Sze to talk about his career and the role poetry can play in American society and everyday life.
Culture OC: How were you selected as U.S. Poet Laureate?
Arthur Sze: The Library of Congress appoints the U.S. Poet Laureate. And as I understand it, they have 100 different literary experts around the country who decide. They could be poets, they could be directors of literary organizations – editors, publishers. They have a group of over 100 people who nominate.
As I understand it, the process is quite involved. I can say I was astonished when Rob Casper – head of poetry and literature (for the Academy of American Poets) called me in 2025. I’m serving for 2025-26, and that can be extended for another year, but that will be discussed.
COC: Can you tell me something about the salary you are earning as poet laureate?
AS: The salary was established by the person who founded the U.S. Poet Laureate, who donated a chunk of money, and that is a separate endowment. It’s not dependent on Congress or federal funding, because it comes from the special fund. So during the recent government shutdown, I was not affected.
COC: Can you tell me how much that salary is?
AS: I’m not sure that I’m supposed to say.
COC: But it would be a living wage, a living sum?
AS: Yes.
COC: Arthur, what does it mean to you to be the first Asian American poet laureate?
AS: It’s exciting, and I also feel a particular responsibility as the first Asian American selected to be the U.S. Poet Laureate. Obviously, the goal of the poet laureate is to celebrate and increase appreciation of poetry in our country. My project is to reach out to all Americans. But I feel a special responsibility and excitement as the first Asian American.
For instance in December, the Chinese American Citizens Alliance in Albuquerque invited me to do a reading. Whether they had money or not, I felt a particular responsibility to them. We connected with Albuquerque Academy, a private high school with an active parents’ association, which has a number of Asian American parents involved in it. I read for the entire school – there are over 1,000 students at this Albuquerque Academy. We had two events in mid-December.
COC: What are your responsibilities as U.S. Poet Laureate? Obviously, you do readings?
AS: There are really two prongs, as I see it. On the one hand, I do have the opportunity to read my own poetry at different venues across the country. As the other prong to the position, each poet laureate has been asked to design a signature project. I chose a project connecting poetry in translation with people.
I’m publishing a pocket-sized book, “Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry,” which is going to be released on April 14. It contains 23 poems from 13 different languages, including Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Navajo and Greek .
I present three different translations of the same poem, and then I invite the reader to make their own translations. They can carry it in their backpacks – it’s a kind of sourcebook. This is my project.
COC: In this day and age, when most people are getting their information and entertainment through screens, why is poetry important?
AS: Poetry has a crucial role to play in our lives. We’re living in a very fast-paced world. We have the internet and social media and smart phones, and for that speed, we also sacrifice depth. We’re losing depth of perception.
You cannot speed-read a poem. Poetry communicates through sound and rhythm; it’s best if you speak it aloud. My book is designed in zones – if you only have 15 minutes, you can still read one section. A reader may only have small increments in time.
Poetry has a crucial role to play. It makes us slow down, and in doing that, it deepens our experience. It helps us center ourselves, get more situated in our bodies. And so we’re not just zooming on the surface.
COC: Is poetry for everyone, or just an elite literary class?
AS: Poetry is for everyone. When I grew up and was in junior high school, poetry was presented as something necessarily difficult, esoteric and hard to understand. In junior high school and high school, I had no idea that I would become a poet.
I do think poetry asks a reader, invites a reader to read and re-read and deepen an experience.
Poetry is language at its most musical and most intense. It has a lot to give us in that regard. Poetry just requires an open mind, an open spirit, and really is for everyone.
COC: Have you ever written anything substantial in prose?
AS: I was doomed to be a poet. I tried to write a short story – it became a prose poem. I have, over time, written a few essays. Everything I write seems to turn into a poem.
COC: Are there poets over the years who have had a major influence on you?
AS: There are two poets who were instrumental. Denise Levertov taught a combined MIT/Harvard class in 1969, which I took. I had been writing for less than a year, and I applied to be in a workshop, and I was accepted.
There aren’t a lot of MIT students studying poetry. Denise was the first poet I met who was devoting her life to poetry, who was passionate about poetry. When I decided that’s what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to transfer (to UC Berkeley, where Levertov also moved).
The second poet I met was Josephine Miles. I only took two writing classes in my life. I never went to graduate school, I did not get an MFA. I really learned my craft through translation. I talked to Josephine Miles (at UC Berkeley) and told her, “I don’t know how I’m ever going to graduate.” I was translating classical Chinese poetry, and I didn’t fit in any major.
She said, “Well, I’m a university professor; I’ll sponsor you to create your own major in poetry. Take whatever you want, and I’ll approve it.” And she did.
COC: You’re appearing March 3 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre here in Orange County. What do you talk about at these events?
AS: It’s going to vary greatly. I understand high school students are coming in. I’ll be talking and reading for about 25 minutes. My guess is, I will read poems appropriate for high school students and the public, of course, and talk a little bit about my journey as a poet. As U.S. Poet Laureate, I want to create some excitement about poetry and make sure it is accessible.
COC: Will you be reading from your new book?
AS: I think I will touch on it, certainly. I’m not sure if there’s enough time.
COC: For Asian Americans in particular, and I can speak from personal experience, there’s a certain amount of pressure, especially if your parents are immigrants, to pursue a professional career (like doctor or lawyer or engineer). For the younger generation of Asian American readers, who also need to establish a career, how do you reconcile the pressures of getting a job and becoming a wage earner with the art and beauty of poetry?
AS: There’s no easy answer here. And my path has been very difficult, and I wouldn’t necessarily wish it on anyone else. In the early days, I never had enough money to live on. I worked as a construction worker, a house painter, a U.S. Census data collector. Eventually I got the teaching job at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
It’s certainly very precarious, particularly in the early going. But I remember the words of Henry David Thoreau, early on in “Walden”: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” If I had stayed on the safer path of science, I would have always had this streak of desperation. I would have wondered what I could have done, if I had struck out on my own.
It was very difficult with my family. They wanted me to become a doctor, or a banker, or pursue law. An artist was too risky, too scary. For a young Asian American, if you have this dream, and it means enough to you, it’s worth pursuing, you have to fight for it.
The closure of my personal story, 20 years after lots of parental difficulty, my father was in the hospital having surgery, and he said to me, “When I was a teenager in China, my dream was to be a poet.”
It was 20 years later – there was a moment of reconciliation. My dad was extremely proud of me and supportive. I was amazed that it took 20 years for me to come into what I was doing.
(To) a young Asian American, I guess I could say nothing is ever safe. You have to determine how much your passion or your dream means to you, and if it’s worth pursuing.
COC: Have you learned anything traveling the country?
AS: I’m just beginning to embark on it, with the government being shut down. March, April and May are going to be very busy.
I have been to Queens College in New York City, and the Institute of American Indian Arts. I’ve been to Florida twice, for the Miami Book Fair, and last week I was at the University of Miami. I feel poetry may not have a huge number of followers, in the sense of pop culture. But I felt intense excitement by the students who were writing poetry and by the public who came to the reading.
COC: For decades, you’ve worked with Native American young people. Have you learned anything working with Native Americans over the years?
AS: Respect. I would say the sense of being humble and respecting other points of view, other cultures. I’m hesitating, because I don’t want to make it a cliché, that Native Americans have a special spirituality. But Native cultures foreground a sense of awareness of a self being part of a larger whole of interconnection. It’s not something you hear once and forget about it. Over 22 years, it accrues and deepens.
COC: Finally, how does it feel to be the U.S. Poet Laureate? What do you hope to achieve in this role?
AS: I’m honored to be U.S. Poet Laureate, the first Asian American, and I also feel a great responsibility. I want to do my very best in terms of promoting poetry across the country, to really expand the reach of poetry.
I want to really take it out into the communities. I want people in their 40s, 50s, 60s to be thinking about translating a poem. I feel like my project can hopefully reach people in new ways.
I’m the first poet laureate to be thinking about poetry in translation as a particular theme or vehicle to use or promote poetry for everyone.
Arthur Sze: 16th Annual Creative Edge Lecture
When: 10 a.m. March 3
Where: Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine
Cost: Free; advance reservations are required
Information: (949) 854-4646 or thebarclay.org
