Into the Hush
Will be published approx. on 26. February 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
80 pages
978-1-83731-225-2 (ISBN)
Description
'Wise, beguiling... a treasure and a beacon of a poet, whose indispensable body of work offers no less than a way to navigate this world' Sarah Howe
A new collection and first UK publication from the Poet Laureate of the United States
Arthur Sze has long been renowned for his constellation of vision and generous imagination - able to hold the aspen leaf and the mountain range, the water droplet and the crashing surf in the same stunning poetic field.
Turning his attention to habitat destruction, language extinction, mortality and so much more, Into the Hush sketches a world slipping into silence, asking what we lose to it, what emerges, and what can be held in its aperture.
Sze draws together a startling array of imagery in these quietly forceful poems that render our complex universe with profound simplicity and clarity. Sze's lyric voice - which at times inhabits the body of a jaguar and even an eraser - moves between chaos and stillness with supple agility, challenging our notions of traditional poetic forms such as the haibun, zuihitsu, sonnet and pantoum to break open new avenues of expression that speak to our fragmented world.
Attuned to the underlying network that connects all things, Into the Hush charts a thrilling journey from silence into sound, from emptiness into the rich possibilities of existence.
A new collection and first UK publication from the Poet Laureate of the United States
Arthur Sze has long been renowned for his constellation of vision and generous imagination - able to hold the aspen leaf and the mountain range, the water droplet and the crashing surf in the same stunning poetic field.
Turning his attention to habitat destruction, language extinction, mortality and so much more, Into the Hush sketches a world slipping into silence, asking what we lose to it, what emerges, and what can be held in its aperture.
Sze draws together a startling array of imagery in these quietly forceful poems that render our complex universe with profound simplicity and clarity. Sze's lyric voice - which at times inhabits the body of a jaguar and even an eraser - moves between chaos and stillness with supple agility, challenging our notions of traditional poetic forms such as the haibun, zuihitsu, sonnet and pantoum to break open new avenues of expression that speak to our fragmented world.
Attuned to the underlying network that connects all things, Into the Hush charts a thrilling journey from silence into sound, from emptiness into the rich possibilities of existence.
Reviews / Votes
Arthur Sze is a treasure and a beacon of a poet, whose indispensable body of work offers no less than 'a way to navigate this world'. As wise as it is beguiling, Into the Hush reminds me of George Eliot's 'roar which lies on the other side of silence'. These poems lead us through the intermeshing worlds of matter and spirit, science and instinct, to touch the beating heart of things. '[H]ere is the anvil on which to hammer your days-': I, for one, am ready to accept the invitation, the challenge. -- Sarah Howe, author of <i> Foretokens </i>More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 193 mm
Width: 146 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Weight
92 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83731-225-2 (9781837312252)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Arthur Sze is a poet, translator, editor and the current US Poet Laureate. His poetry has received several awards including the 2025 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry for Lifetime Achievement, the 2019 National Book Award, 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Guggenheim Fellowship, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and Lannan Literary Award. Sze is a chancellor emeritus of the Academy of American Poets and was the first Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, where he lives with his wife, the poet Carol Moldaw.