ARTHUR SZE + Crisosto Apache
These events are made possible through sponsorships from Colorado Creative Industries and Lighthouse Writers Workshop.
Arthur Sze. Courtesy of Blue Flower Arts and the artist.
ABOUT THE ArTHUR SZE
Arthur Sze is a poet, translator, and editor, and 25th Poet Laureate of the United States (25-27). 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.
Arthur Sze is the third VASD Program artist in the college-wide FRICTION Series.
Crisosto Apache. Courtesy of the artist.
About Crisosto Apache
Crisosto Apache is a RMCAD Associate Professor and the current 11th Poet Laureate for Colorado (26-27) and the recipient of the Montalvo Center’s Lucus Art Fellowship. Crisosto is from Mescalero, New Mexico, on the Mescalero Apache reservation. Crisosto is Mescalero Apache, Chiricahua Apache, and Diné (Navajo). Apache’s clanships are the Salt Clan, born for the Towering House Clan. Apache attended the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) and earned an MFA, and is an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing. Apache is the recipient of the Montalvo Center’s Lucas Artist Fellowship and is on the board for The Offing Magazine. Apache’s books are GENESIS (Lost Alphabet), Out-of-Print & Ghostword (Gnashing Teeth Publishing), winner of the Publishing Triangle’s 2023 Betty Berzon Emerging Writers Award and a finalist for the 2023 Colorado Authors League Award in poetry, with a new poetry collection is(ness), from Gnashing Teeth Publishing. Apache is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Crisosto continues to advocate for the Two-spirit/Indigiqueer community for the past twenty years, working in grassroots non-profit organizations both locally and nationally.
RMCAD + PUBLIC EVENTS
Arthur Sze + Crisosto Apache:
in conversation
Tuesday, January 12, 2027
6:00 pm MST | Doors Open at 5:30 pm
Mary Harris Auditorium and Livestream
Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design
1600 Pierce Street, Denver, CO 80214
RMCAD Registration Opens Monday, November 16
PUBLIC Registration Opens Monday, November 30
RMCAD’s VASD Program is honored to host poet, translator, editor, and the 25th Poet Laureate of the United States, Arthur Sze, as part of its 2026/2027 Friction Series.
Significantly, Sze’s public, on-stage conversation will be with Crisosto Apache, RMCAD Associate Professor, current Colorado Poet Laureate, and Sze’s former student.
A book signing will immediately follow the conversation and audience Q+A. Books will be available to purchase at the event.
Four lucky RMCAD students attending in person and online will be entered to win a Crisosto Apache or Arthur Sze signed book at the event.
Arthur Sze Poetry workshop
Transient Worlds: Making a Translation and Writing through It, with Arthur Sze
Wednesday, January 13, 2027
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Lighthouse Writers Workshop
3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80205
Free for RMCAD students (students must apply HERE by Wednesday, January 6, 2027, to participate).
Ticketed for the public (tickets will be available soon).
RMCAD students have the exclusive opportunity to attend a workshop by US Poet Laureate and VASD Program artist, Arthur Sze.
As an award-winning poet and translator, Arthur will guide attendees through the practice of translating poetry as a way to expand and strengthen our own poetry. The group will look at three different translations of Tao Qian's "Drinking Wine" (V), discuss issues of translation, and make our own translations of this poem.
Free RMCAD student transportation provided by the RMCAD shuttle! Meet in front of the Texas building at 1:15 pm. Students will be back on campus at approximately 4:30 pm.
RMCAD Only Events
STUDENT-LED Q+A SESSION
Wednesday, January 13, 2027
10:00 am - 11:00 am
RMCAD Campus (exact location TBA) and on Zoom
Student-Led Q&A Sessions are casual, in-person conversations open to RMCAD students, faculty, and staff only. Guided by student voices, these discussions generate valuable professional advice for all students.
Students! Apply HERE by Wednesday, January 6, 2027 to moderate the conversation.
Recommendation List
VASD Program visiting artists and designers provide a recommendation list that gives insight into their work, practice, and research. Arthur Sze and Crisosto Apache’s recommendations are coming soon!