POET

Arthur Sze (1950 - )

BIOGRAPHY

Arthur Sze is a poet whose work, according to Albuquerque Journal reviewer John Tritica, "resides somewhere in the intersection of Taoist contemplation, Zen rock gardens and postmodern experimentation." Sze was born in New York City in 1950, and he was educated at the University of California at Berkeley in the early 1970s. In 1984 he began teaching at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and in 1989 he became professor of creative writing at the institution.

Sze's poetry collection Archipelago was hailed by Tritica as "an important poetic achievement." In these poems Sze sometimes produces unlikely juxtapositions of imagery, and he expresses both the sensual and the philosophical. "His achievement is solid because he enacts a synthesis of the life-sustaining web that is both Eastern and Western," Tritica affirmed, "both fragile and durable." Another enthusiast, Gene Frumkin, wrote in Manoa that the poems in Archipelago "show a remarkable ability to seize on nature and human undertakings without cataloging them." Frumkin called Sze a "precisionist" and added that the poet's work reveals the creator to be a "wise man." C. L. Rawlins, meanwhile, declared in the Bloomsbury Review, "There are very few books of poetry that hold such a variety of passion . . . in such compassionate and graceful form."

In his next collection, The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998, Sze charts his artistic development of nearly twenty years. William MacNeil wrote in New Mexican, "One of the joys of The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998 is seeing the evolution Arthur Sze has made from young, always lyrical poet to complex writer, drawing images from a wide range of sources to create rich tapestries." MacNeil concluded that the volume "will well reward poetry lovers."

CAREER

Institute of American Indian Arts, instructor in English, 1984-89, director of creative writing program, 1989-96, professor of creative writing, 1989—; writer. Member of board of directors, Tooth of Time Books, 1985-88. Artist-in-residence at Naropa Institute, 1989 and 1995, Brown University, 1991, and Bard College, 1991. Poetry coordinator, Tone Roads West: Poetry and New Music Festival, 1983; participant in public readings, workshops, and writers' conferences; visiting poet at schools in Alaska and New Mexico; judge in writing contests.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

POETRY

• The Willow Wind, Rainbow Zenith Press (Berkeley, CA), 1972, revised edition published as The Willow Wind: Poems and Translations from the Chinese, Tooth of Time Books (Santa Fe, NM), 1981.
• Two Ravens, Tooth of Time Books (Guadalupita, NM), 1976, revised edition published as Two Ravens: Poems and Translations from the Chinese, 1984.
• Dazzled, Floating Island Publications (Point Reyes, CA), 1982.
• River River, Lost Roads Publishers (Providence, RI), 1987.
• Archipelago, Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA), 1995.
• The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998, Copper Canyon Press, 1998.
• The Silk Dragon: Translations of Chinese Poetry, Copper Canyon Press, 2001.
• Quipu, Copper Canyon Press, (Port Townsend, WA), 2005.

Work represented in anthologies, including Articulations: The Body and Illness in Poetry, edited by Jon Mukand, University of Iowa Press (Iowa City, IA), 1994; Premonitions: The Kaya Anthology of New Asian North American Poetry, edited by Walter Lew, Kaya Production (New York City), 1995; I Feel a Little Jumpy around You, edited by Naomi Shihab Nye and Paul Janeczko, Simon & Schuster (New York City), 1996; and What Book!?: Buddhist Poems from Beats to Hiphop, edited by Gary Gach, Parallax Press (Berkeley, CA), 1998.

OTHER

• Editor of collections I Am Waiting to Be Free, 1981, and Cuentos III, 1984. Contributor to periodicals, including Conjunctions, River Styx, Asian Pacific American Journal, American Poetry Review, Hanging Loose, and Manoa. Contributing editor, Buttons, 1971-73, and Tyuonyi, 1985-94. Corresponding editor, Manoa, 1998—.

FURTHER READINGS

PERIODICALS

• Albuquerque Journal, January 5, 1997, John Tritica, review of Archipelago.
• Bloomsbury Review, July/August, 1996, C. L. Rawlins, review of Archipelago.
• Manoa, November, 1996, Gene Frumkin, review of Archipelago, pp. 218-220.
• New Mexican, June 21, 1998, William MacNeil, review of The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998.
• Washington Post Book World, August 2, 1998, Robert Hass, "Poet's Choice."