The Library of Congress has appointed celebrated poet Arthur Sze as the 25th U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, honoring a voice that has long illuminated the American literary landscape with clarity, depth, and innovation. His term will span 2025–2026.
Born in New York City in 1950 to Chinese immigrant parents, Arthur Sze has authored 12 acclaimed poetry collections, most recently Into the Hush (2025), and the prose collection The White Orchard: Selected Interviews, Essays, and Poems (2025). His earlier work, Sight Lines (2019), garnered the National Book Award for Poetry, while Compass Rose (2014) was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Arthur Sze
Sze, a Santa Fe resident and the recipient of the 2024 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, will inaugurate his laureateship with a public reading on Thursday, October 9, held in the Library’s historic Coolidge Auditorium. Admission will be free, with tickets available beginning September 18 at loc.gov. Arthur Sze
As laureate, Sze intends to spotlight poetry in translation—a bridge between cultures and languages, reflecting his lifelong dedication to widening poetry’s reach and resonance.
“Last fall, the Library honored Arthur Sze with the Bobbitt Prize for lifetime achievement in poetry; this fall, we are delighted to welcome him back as the nation’s poet laureate,” said Acting Librarian of Congress Robert Randolph Newlen. “His work is rooted in the landscapes of the American Southwest and distinguished by formal elegance and innovation. Like Dickinson and Whitman before him, Sze draws from myriad traditions to create poetry that is at once timeless and deeply contemporary.”
Sze now joins a distinguished lineage of poets who have held the laureateship, including Ada Limón, Joy Harjo, Tracy K. Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Billy Collins, Robert Pinsky, and Rita Dove, among others—each bringing a unique vision to the role of national poet.
Reflecting on his appointment, Sze remarked:
“To be named the 25th Poet Laureate of the United States is an extraordinary honor. As the son of Chinese immigrants, and as a young man who once left MIT to follow the uncertain path of poetry, I could never have foreseen such recognition. This honor is not mine alone—it belongs to the teachers, librarians, editors, poets, and readers who labor daily in service of poetry. As laureate, I feel called to advocate for the power of poetry, particularly poetry in translation, to deepen our awareness, foster connection, and remind us how to live more fully in this hurried world.”
Sze’s work traverses philosophical inquiry, ecological vision, and cultural interweaving. His 2021 compendium, The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems, earned a 2024 Science and Literature Award from the National Book Foundation. His recent translations, The Silk Dragon II (2024), continue his longstanding devotion to bringing classical Chinese poetry into English with lyrical precision.
A former Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, Sze is also Professor Emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts and has received an array of prestigious honors: the Bollingen Prize, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and more. Arthur Sze
About the Poet Laureate Position
The position of Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry was established in 1937 through an endowment by Archer M. Huntington, and was formally codified in 1985 by public law. Laureates serve as stewards of the national poetic voice, charged with elevating public engagement with poetry. While official duties remain minimal, many laureates have launched far-reaching initiatives to broaden poetry’s presence in American life.
With Arthur Sze’s appointment, the laureateship turns toward a voice of rare clarity and compassion—one attuned to the silences between languages, the shifting light across a desert landscape, and the music of a mind attentive to the world.
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Ali Imran is a Washington-based journalist, who has worked for leading world news organizations as correspondent, expert and in editorial positions. He is a published author and poet.
