This week’s poetry news round up takes a look at the current US Poet Laureate, the 90^th birthday of Olzhas Suleimenov and the 2025 winner of the Luschei Prize in African Poetry.

Arthur Sze Takes on the Art of Translated Poetry

The current US poet laureate, Arthur Sze, took a rather unconventional path to the role. Born to Chinese immigrant parents in 1950, the family wanted him to take a conventional career path, one that would offer him prosperity and security. Whilst he was studying at MIT, he was drawn to the idea of studying and writing poetry and this called to him to change the direction of his life.

He has since spent much of his career translating traditional forms of Chinese poetry. He has also taught in New Mexico at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and he now hold the title of professor emeritus.

At the moment he is currently travelling around America with “Words Bridging Worlds,” his signature poet laureate project. As part of the project, he is conducting a series of reading and workshops that celebrate translated poetry.

Olzhas Suleimenov Celebrated on his 90^th Birthday

The mayor of Almaty visited the famous poet and political activist Olzhas Suleimenov on his 90th birthday to give him a message from the president of Kazakhstan.

The message congratulated Suleimenov and spoke of the well-deserved recognition he had earned as a result of his poetry both in Kazakhstan and on an international level. It went on to thank him for his unique creativity and the contribution that he had made to the “revival of the historical consciousness of the Kazakh people.”

Suleimenov was also part of the Nevada-Semey anti-nuclear movement which became a symbol of the struggles faced against nuclear testing. The movement also played an important role with the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Testing Site.

In addition to being a poet and literary critic Suleimenov is also a distinguished diplomat and Turkologist-linguist. His epics and poems have been translated over the years into dozens of languages on a global scale.

Winner of the Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry Announced

Poet, performer, playwright and producer, Siphokazi Jonas has been named as the winner of 2025’s Glenna Luschei Prize. The prize, which is the only poetry prize of its kind, is an annual award presented by the African Poetry Book Fund at Brown University. It honours either African poetry that is written in English or that has been translated. Each year a single significant book by an African poet is recognised. Jonas’s winning collection

is his debut work and has been building critical acclaim since its publication.

Weeping Becomes a River is another feather in the cap for the poet, who has already won the Book Lounge 2024 Book of the Year Award. He was also a winner of 2025’s HSS Award for Best Poetry and the debut collection has also been featured in the top one hundred Notable African Books of 2024 and was the winner of the 2025 UJ Debut Prize for South African Writing. The latter is a prize open to writing from all literary genres, not just poetry, making it a rare achievement.