Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze and U.K. Poet Laureate Simon Armitage will join the stage for the first time, to discuss their new books: Sze's "Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry" and Armitage's "Gilgamesh: A New Verse Translation." A book signing will follow.
Arthur Sze is a poet, translator, and editor, and in 2025 he was named the 25th Poet Laureate of the United States. He is the author of twelve books of poetry, including "Into the Hush" (2025) and "The White Orchard: Selected Interviews, Essays, and Poems" (2025); "The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems" (2021); "Sight Lines" (2019), for which he won the National Book Award; "Compass Rose" (2014); "The Ginkgo Light" (2009); "Quipu" (2005); "The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970–1998" (1998); and "Archipelago" (1995). He also authored "Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry" (forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press, 2026), "The Silk Dragon II: Translations of Chinese Poetry" (2024), and edited "Chinese Writers on Writing" (2010). His poetry has been translated into fifteen languages, including Chinese, Dutch, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Sze received the 2025 Bollingen Prize for lifetime achievement in American poetry, the 2024 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, 2024 National Book Foundation Science + Literature award, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Jackson Poetry Prize, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among others. A chancellor emeritus of the Academy of American Poets and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was the 2023–2024 Mohr Visiting Poet at Stanford University. Professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), Sze was the first poet laureate of Santa Fe, where he lives with his wife, the poet Carol Moldaw.
One of England’s best-loved authors and current U.K. Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage is an award-winning poet, author, songwriter, playwright, and translator. His numerous collections of poetry include "New Cemetery," "The Unaccompanied," "Paper Aeroplane: Poems 1989-2014," "Seeing Stars," "Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus the Corduroy Kid," and "The Shout." In addition, he has published new verse translations of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Death of King Arthur. His nonfiction book, "Walking Home: A Poet’s Journey," documents his 265-mile walking tour across England, working as a “modern troubadour.”In 2010, for services to poetry, Armitage was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) at Buckingham Palace. His other numerous awards in the UK include the Gregory Award and a Forward Prize; in the US he has received a major Lannan Award and was twice shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Armitage is the current Professor of Poetry at Oxford University (2015-2019) and is Professor of Poetry at the University of Sheffield.
U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze and U.K. Poet Laureate Simon Armitage will join the stage for the first time, to discuss their new books: Sze's "Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry" and Armitage's "Gilgamesh: A New Verse Translation." A book signing will follow.
Arthur Sze is a poet, translator, and editor, and in 2025 he was named the 25th Poet Laureate of the United States. He is the author of twelve books of poetry, including "Into the Hush" (2025) and "The White Orchard: Selected Interviews, Essays, and Poems" (2025); "The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems" (2021); "Sight Lines" (2019), for which he won the National Book Award; "Compass Rose" (2014); "The Ginkgo Light" (2009); "Quipu" (2005); "The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970–1998" (1998); and "Archipelago" (1995). He also authored "Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry" (forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press, 2026), "The Silk Dragon II: Translations of Chinese Poetry" (2024), and edited "Chinese Writers on Writing" (2010). His poetry has been translated into fifteen languages, including Chinese, Dutch, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Sze received the 2025 Bollingen Prize for lifetime achievement in American poetry, the 2024 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, 2024 National Book Foundation Science + Literature award, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Jackson Poetry Prize, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among others. A chancellor emeritus of the Academy of American Poets and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was the 2023–2024 Mohr Visiting Poet at Stanford University. Professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), Sze was the first poet laureate of Santa Fe, where he lives with his wife, the poet Carol Moldaw.
One of England’s best-loved authors and current U.K. Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage is an award-winning poet, author, songwriter, playwright, and translator. His numerous collections of poetry include "New Cemetery," "The Unaccompanied," "Paper Aeroplane: Poems 1989-2014," "Seeing Stars," "Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus the Corduroy Kid," and "The Shout." In addition, he has published new verse translations of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Death of King Arthur. His nonfiction book, "Walking Home: A Poet’s Journey," documents his 265-mile walking tour across England, working as a “modern troubadour.”In 2010, for services to poetry, Armitage was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) at Buckingham Palace. His other numerous awards in the UK include the Gregory Award and a Forward Prize; in the US he has received a major Lannan Award and was twice shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Armitage is the current Professor of Poetry at Oxford University (2015-2019) and is Professor of Poetry at the University of Sheffield.
