Recent news featuring Copper Canyon Press poets.
“By the Book with Arthur Sze” in The New York Times
NYT: “You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you
invite?”
AS: “I’m thinking of poets I included in Transient Worlds and am assuming we could all converse in a common language. I would invite Guillaume Apollinaire, because I admire his exuberance and love of experimentation. And Marina Tsvetaeva. Would she be as dark as some of her poetry, or would her fiery streak erupt in conversation? And I’d invite Aimé Césaire: his imagination is wild.”
Excerpt from Robert Hass’s A Third Commonness in the Adroit Journal
“My older brother had been an English major and would sometimes read aloud to me from Wordsworth and Tennyson, that idea of poetry. And in high school English we took in Robert Frost using the language of everyday speech with a New England twang and applying the techniques of realism to a pastoral tradition and a wisdom poetry. And I had been haunted by the music of a poem by Wallace Stevens, some of which I could recite, though I probably couldn’t have told you the author’s name. . . . So I suppose I already had the idea that poetry was the language for what you didn’t have a language for, and also that it was attractive language, so that, when John Keats said that beauty is truth, truth beauty, we knew, more or less, what he meant.”—Robert Hass
Laura Kasischke’s I Was Bonnie & Clyde reviewed in The Lake
“The poems in I Was Bonnie & Clyde often feel drenched in memory. . . . It feels like a bit of wisdom about how we evaluate our personal histories and what engages our self-reflection, the lore we are forced to drag along with us throughout our lives. Stuff we’ve been told. Stuff we probably invent.”—Charles Rammelkamp
Kelli Russell Agodon’s Accidental Devotions reviewed in North of Oxford
“[Agodon’s] poems brim with her enthusiasm for life, but this is tempered by her keen feeling for the evanescence of things, the fleetingness of love and living, and the accompanying melancholy that often entails.”—Charles Rammelkamp
Watch now: “Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry”
Enjoy a look inside U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze’s newest collection, Transient Worlds, your passport into 1,500 years of global poetry.
Tricycle Podcast: “Bridging Worlds”
“In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Sze to discuss why he views translation as the deepest form of reading, how poetry can prompt us toward moral and spiritual transformation, what it means for translation to be an impossible task, and how poetry can build bridges and connections across languages and cultures.”—Tricycle
Listen to the full podcast here.
“Ten Questions for Bob Hicok” in Poets & Writers
“Not writing—the time I spend not writing—is the challenge, most of all believing in the value of what I write. So books, including this one, are an immense struggle, given my distaste for my finished poems. I love love love making them and pretty much can’t stand them after.”—Bob Hicok
Marianne Boruch wins 2026 Jackson Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement
Congratulations to Marianne Boruch, winner of the prestigious Jackson Poetry Prize! This award recognizes an American poet of exceptional talent and carries a generous monetary award of $100,000.
Selected by Major Jackson, Cole Swenson, and Afaa Michael
Weaver, Boruch is recognized for the scope of her work as well as its craft. The judges noted her curiosity and the range of subjects her poems address: “It is Boruch’s keen intelligence and genuine concern that takes her to this work and brings back to us these gems that do not shrink from frankness, as she looks everywhere for what can help us see. To read Boruch is to constantly look up with eyes a little more widely open and think, yes!”
Read the full award announcement here.
An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang wins Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award
Jennifer Chang’s An Authentic Life has won the 2026 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award!
This award honors both the poet and provides the financial resources to allow writers to focus on their craft.
Congratulations to Jennifer Chang and to all finalists!
Alison C. Rollins wins a 2026 Whiting Award in Poetry
We are thrilled to announce that Alison Rollins has won a 2026 Whiting Award.
This award recognizes exceptional writers who demonstrate promise for future great work. The grant award aims to provide writers with an opportunity to devote themselves to their writing.
Congratulations to Alison Rollins and all other winners!
Arthur Sze receives a 2026 Asia Society Northern California Game Changer West Award
We are pleased to announce that the Asia Society has honored Arthur Sze with a Game Changer West Award! This awards recognizes individuals, organizations, and movements that have inspired, enlightened, and shown true leadership in areas that reflect Asia Society’s core pillars of policy and business, technology and innovation, arts and culture, and education.
Congratulations to Arthur Sze on this latest accolade!
What Will We Carry Forward? An Evening of Poetry with Paisley Rekdal
May 7, 2026 | 5:15 pm PDT | Virtual
Join Paisley Rekdal and co-hosts Michael Wiegers and Ryo Yamaguchi for a virtual poetry reading and benefit for Copper Canyon Press. Throughout the evening, you’ll hear selections from Paisley’s forthcoming collection, Heritance, and have an opportunity to donate to support the Press’s entire fall season.
An Evening with Robert Hass at Local Economy
May 8, 2026 | 6:00 – 8:00 pm PDT | In-Person
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass will read from his new book, A Third Commonness: Essays on Poetry, Poetics, and the Natural World. Hass has won a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize.
He’ll be joined in conversation by Jesse Nathan, fellow poet and author of the celebrated collection, Eggtooth. Co-presented with East Bay Booksellers, books will be available for purchase and signing.
Mutual Awe: Poetry and Science with Ellen Bass
May 9, 2026 | 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm ET | Virtual
Join Ellen Bass for a workshop exploring the relationship between poetry and science.
Juxtaposition in Poetry with Ellen Bass
June 4, 2026 | 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm PDT | Virtual
Join Ellen Bass for a workshop on juxtaposition, where you’ll learn a variety of approaches to make evocative associations.
Watch now: “A Celebration of Transient Worlds with U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze”
On April, 20, 2026, U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze joined Michael Wiegers for a special conversation about his landmark collection, Transient Worlds. Over the course of the evening, we experienced the materiality of language in concrete poems from Transient Worlds; we opened our hearts to the cross-cultural understanding and connection that translation makes possible; and we learned how the collection’s collaborative spirit has inspired Arthur to bring a series of translation workshops to communities across the nation. Thank you to everyone who joined us live. You can revisit the event, or enjoy it for the first time, on YouTube.
Watch the event recording here.
New poetry from Kelli Russell Agodon, “Poem to the Future” in ONE ART
“Future, if you stop by, I promise to open the door. / I know sometimes you arrive in combat boots, / laces braided with bombs and drones, even the way / you cuff your jeans feels like a subtle threat. Future, / if you come inside, I’ll offer you jasmine tea, but know / I have champagne chilling in the fridge as I keep hoping / we’ll get to celebrate you.”—Kelli Russell Agodon
“A Theory on the Origin of Language” by Tishani Doshi in The New Yorker
“Last night, after months away from home, / a lawping piercing the still dark still / with its warnings. Language, perhaps, / began like this.”—Tishani Doshi