Renowned poet and translator Arthur Sze will visit Hendrix College this Spring as the 2012-2013 Murphy Visiting Poet. Described as “a poet of clarity and compassion” by the poet Jackson McLow, Sze is a highly sought-after teacher and presenter. He has served as poet-in-residence at Mary Baldwin College, Washington University, and most recently Centre College.
Sze visits Conway to present “An Evening with Murphy Visiting Poet Arthur Sze,”on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013, at 7:30 p.m., in Reves Recital Hall on the Hendrix College campus. A book signing and reception will follow in Trieschmann Gallery. The event is free and open to the public.
Born in New York City to Chinese immigrants, Sze attended the University of California at Berkeley where he was inspired by Denise Levertov to study poetry over electrical engineering. Speaking on Sze’ s contributions to the art of poetry, Naomi Shihab Nye has said, “Arthur Sze’s work has long been a nourishing tonic for the mind – presences of the natural world, wide consciousness, and time, combine in exquisitely shaped and weighted lines and stanzas to create a poetry of deep attunement and lyrical precision. Sze’s ongoing generous exchange with Asian poets and devotion to translation in collections such as The Silk Dragon, enriches the canon of world poetry immeasurably.”
Sze is the author of eight collections of poetry including The Red-Shifting Web and Quipu, and most recently, The Gingko Light. As an editor, Sze’s projects include Chinese Writers on Writing, an anthology that brings together material by contemporary Chinese writers reflecting on their work, their processes, and the challenges of writing under China’s political system.
From 2006-2008, Sze served as the City of Santa Fe’s first Poet Laureate. He is the recipient of awards from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Witter Bynner Foundation. Sze is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing for the Institute of American Indian Arts, where he taught for over twenty years, mentoring a new wave of innovative and groundbreaking Native American poets that have included Sherwin Bitsui, Orlando White, Santee Frazier, dg nanouk okpik, and others.
The Murphy Visiting Poet Series has included such nationally and internationally recognized poets as Michael Ondaatje, Allen Ginsberg, Seamus Heaney, Gwendolyn Brooks, Rita Dove, Ishmael Reed, Ted Kooser, Donald Hall, and Jorie Graham.
This event is sponsored by the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language, which are designed to enhance and enrich the study and teaching of literature and language at Hendrix College. For more information about this and future events, please contact Henryetta Vanaman, 501-450-4597 or vanaman@hendrix.edu.
Source Hendrix-Murphy Foundation