US has its frst Asan American Poet Laureate

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Arthur Sze is the United States Poet Laureate.

For the first time, the Library of Congress appointed an Asian American as the nation's 25th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2025-2026.

“What an amazing honor to be named the 25thPoet Laureate of the United States," said Arthur Sze. "As the son of Chinese immigrants, and as a sophomore who decided to leave MIT to pursue a dream of becoming a poet, I never would have guessed that so many decades later I would receive this recognition,” he said.

“It’s a recognition that belongs to teachers, librarians, editors, poets, readers – everyone who works tirelessly on behalf of poetry. As laureate I feel a great responsibility to promote the ways poetry, especially poetry in translation, can impact our daily lives. We live in such a fast-paced world: poetry helps us slow down, deepen our attention, connect and live more fully.”

During his term as Poet Laureate, Sze, who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, plans to have a special focus on translating poetry originally written in other languages.

“Last fall the Library of Congress honored Arthur Sze with our Bobbitt Prize, for lifetime achievement in poetry; this fall we are thrilled to bring him back to the Library as the nation’s poet laureate,” said Acting Librarian of Congress Robert Randolph Newlen.

Sze joins a long line of distinguished poets who have served in the position, including Ada Limón, who recently completed a two-year second term, as well as Joy Harjo, Tracy K. Smith, Juan Felipe Herrera, Charles Wright, Natasha Trethewey, Philip Levine, W.S. Merwin, Kay Ryan, Charles Simic, Donald Hall, Ted Kooser, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass and Rita Dove.

Sze was born in New York City in 1950 to immigrant parents from China. He studied math and science at MIT in 1968. But in a 1998 interview with WHYY's Fresh Air, he said he found himself "totally bored" in a classroom and found himself writing all the time instead. So he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley to study poetry. Since then, he's written 12 poetry collections, including 2025's Into the Hush as well as the prose collection “The White Orchard: Selected Interviews, Essays, and Poems” (2025).

“His poetry is distinctly American in its focus on the landscapes of the Southwest, where he has lived for many years, as well as in its great formal innovation," said Newlen. "Like Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, Sze forges something new from a range of traditions and influences – and the result is a poetry that moves freely throughout time and space.”

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