Arthur Sze is appointed US poet laureate as the Library of Congress faces challenges

By HILLEL ITALIEAP National WriterAt a time when its leadership is in question and its mission challenged, the Library of Congress has named a new U.S. poet laureate, the much-honored author and translator Arthur Sze. The library announced Monday that the 74-year-old Sze had been appointed to a one-year term, starting this fall. He wondered about the level of responsibilities and worried about the upheaval since President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in May. Sze’s official title is poet laureate consultant in poetry, a 1985 renaming of a position established in 1937 as consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress. Besides his own poetry, he has published “The Silk Dragon: Translations from the Chinese.”“I personally learned my own craft of writing poetry through translating poetry,” he says.