Sze reappointed poet laureate

Arthur Sze will serve a second term as the United States Poet Laureate, the Library of Congress announced on April 14. (loc.gov) The Library said Sze’s new term runs through 2026-2027, extending the appointment he first received on September 15, 2025, as the nation’s 25th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. (loc.gov) The next public event in that role is set for April 30, when Sze will appear with United Kingdom Poet Laureate Simon Armitage in a Library of Congress conversation that will also be livestreamed. The Library described it as part of its National Poetry Month programming. (loc.gov) In the United States, the poet laureate is appointed by the Library of Congress and typically serves a one-year term built around readings, lectures, and public projects meant to bring poetry to wider audiences. (poetryfoundation.org) Sze is using that platform to push poetry in translation, a focus the Library said he began during his first term and is now expanding with a signature project and tour. The Library said the effort is meant to open poetry written in other languages to more readers in English. (loc.gov) That emphasis also lines up with Sze’s own career. The Poetry Foundation describes him as a poet, translator, and editor, and the Library says he was born in New York City in 1950 to Chinese immigrant parents. (poetryfoundation.org, loc.gov) He has published 11 poetry collections, according to the Library, including “The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems” in 2021. The Poetry Foundation also notes that “Sight Lines” won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2019. (loc.gov, poetryfoundation.org) Before arriving at the national post, Sze was the first poet laureate of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and later served as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2012 to 2017, according to the Poetry Foundation. (poetryfoundation.org) The Library’s April 14 announcement also pointed to a new Sze book, “Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry,” published that day by Copper Canyon Press in association with the Library. The Library said the book includes translations from 13 languages. (loc.gov) For now, the immediate marker of Sze’s second term is the April 30 appearance with Armitage, a pairing the Library called an unprecedented conversation between the laureates of the United States and the United Kingdom. (loc.gov)