Arthur Sze
Encyclopedia
Arthur Sze is a second-generation Chinese American poet.
, and is the author of eight books of poetry. His own poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Conjunctions, The Kenyon Review, Manoa, The Paris Review, Field, The New Yorker, and Virginia Quarterly Review, and have been translated into Albanian, Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Romanian, and Turkish. Sze is the author of eight books of poetry, including The Ginkgo Light (Copper Canyon Press
, 2009) He has been included in anthologies such as Articulations: The Body and Illness in Poetry (University of Iowa Press, 1994), Premonitions: The Kaya Anthology of New Asian North American Poetry, (Kaya Production, 1995), I Feel a Little Jumpy around You (Simon & Schuster, 1996), What Book!?: Buddhist Poems from Beats to Hiphop (Parallax Press 1998), and American Alphabets (Oberlin College Press, 2006).
He was a Visiting Hurst Professor at Washington University, a Doenges Visiting Artist at Mary Baldwin College
, and has conducted residencies at Brown University
, Bard College
, and Naropa University
. He is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts
, is the first poet laureate of Santa Fe and has won three grants from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry.
has said: "The word 'compassion' is much overused, 'clarity' less so, but Arthur Sze is truly a poet of clarity and compassion." Albuquerque Journal reviewer John Tritica: commented that Sze "resides somewhere in the intersection of Taoist contemplation, Zen rock gardens and postmodern experimentation." Critic R.W. French notes that Sze's poems "are complex in thought and perception; in language, however, they have the cool clarity of porcelain. The surface is calm, while the depths are resonant. There is about these poems a sense of inevitability, as though they could not possibly be other than what they are. They move precisely through their patterns like a dancer, guided by the discipline that controls and inspires."
Background
Sze was educated at the University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, and is the author of eight books of poetry. His own poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Conjunctions, The Kenyon Review, Manoa, The Paris Review, Field, The New Yorker, and Virginia Quarterly Review, and have been translated into Albanian, Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Romanian, and Turkish. Sze is the author of eight books of poetry, including The Ginkgo Light (Copper Canyon Press
Copper Canyon Press
Copper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, specializing in the publication of poetry and located in the picturesque town of Port Townsend, Washington. Since 1972, the Press has published poetry exclusively and has established an international reputation for its commitment to...
, 2009) He has been included in anthologies such as Articulations: The Body and Illness in Poetry (University of Iowa Press, 1994), Premonitions: The Kaya Anthology of New Asian North American Poetry, (Kaya Production, 1995), I Feel a Little Jumpy around You (Simon & Schuster, 1996), What Book!?: Buddhist Poems from Beats to Hiphop (Parallax Press 1998), and American Alphabets (Oberlin College Press, 2006).
He was a Visiting Hurst Professor at Washington University, a Doenges Visiting Artist at Mary Baldwin College
Mary Baldwin College
Mary Baldwin College is a private, independent, and comprehensive four-year liberal arts women's college in Staunton, Virginia. It was ranked in 2008 by US News & World Report as a top-tier, master's level university in the South. Mary Baldwin offers pre-professional programs in law, medicine,...
, and has conducted residencies at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, Bard College
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
, and Naropa University
Naropa University
Naropa University is a private American liberal arts university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher and Oxford University scholar Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the eleventh-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda.Naropa describes itself as...
. He is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts
Institute of American Indian Arts
The Institute of American Indian Arts is a college focused on Native American art. It is situated in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is congressionally chartered, and was created by an executive order of former American President John F. Kennedy in 1962...
, is the first poet laureate of Santa Fe and has won three grants from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry.
Reviews
The poet Jackson Mac LowJackson Mac Low
Jackson Mac Low was an American poet, performance artist, composer and playwright, known to most readers of poetry as a practioneer of systematic chance operations and other non-intentional compositional methods in his work, which Mac Low first experienced in the musical work of John Cage, Earle...
has said: "The word 'compassion' is much overused, 'clarity' less so, but Arthur Sze is truly a poet of clarity and compassion." Albuquerque Journal reviewer John Tritica: commented that Sze "resides somewhere in the intersection of Taoist contemplation, Zen rock gardens and postmodern experimentation." Critic R.W. French notes that Sze's poems "are complex in thought and perception; in language, however, they have the cool clarity of porcelain. The surface is calm, while the depths are resonant. There is about these poems a sense of inevitability, as though they could not possibly be other than what they are. They move precisely through their patterns like a dancer, guided by the discipline that controls and inspires."
Awards
- Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award
- Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, - American Book Award
- Lannan Literary Award for Poetry,
- Two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing fellowships
- George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship
- Western States Book Award for Translation.
Books
- The Willow Wind, Rainbow Zenith Press (Berkeley, CA), 1972,
- The Willow Wind: Poems and Translations from the Chinese, Tooth of Time Books (Santa Fe, NM), revised edition 1981.
- Two Ravens, Tooth of Time Books (Guadalupita, NM), 1976,
- Two Ravens: Poems and Translations from the Chinese, revised edition 1984.
- Dazzled, Floating Island Publications (Point Reyes, CA), 1982.
- River River, Lost Roads Publishers (Providence, RI), 1987.
- Archipelago, (Copper Canyon PressCopper Canyon PressCopper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, specializing in the publication of poetry and located in the picturesque town of Port Townsend, Washington. Since 1972, the Press has published poetry exclusively and has established an international reputation for its commitment to...
, 1995) (Port Townsend, WA). - The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998, (Copper Canyon Press, 1998).
- Quipu (Copper Canyon Press, 2005).
- The Ginkgo Light (Copper Canyon Press, 2009).
- Chinese Writers on Writing. Ed. Arthur Sze. (Trinity University Press, 2010).
Translations
- The Silk Dragon: Translations of Chinese Poetry (Copper Canyon PressCopper Canyon PressCopper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, specializing in the publication of poetry and located in the picturesque town of Port Townsend, Washington. Since 1972, the Press has published poetry exclusively and has established an international reputation for its commitment to...
, 2001).
External links
- Profile at the Poetry Foundation
- Profile and poems at Poets.org
- "An E-view with Arthur Sze", Rebecca Seiferle, The Drunken Boat
- Lunch Poems: Arthur Sze, UCTV, 4-28-08 (30 mins, audio)
- "Add-Verse" a poetry-photo-video project Arthur Sze participated in
- Sze reading at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on 1 April 1997. Video (30 mins)