This Saturday, August 3rd, the Library of Congress will host the second day of the 2019 Asian American Literature Festival. In anticipation of the Library’s full day of festival programming, Phoebe Coleman of the Library of Congress’s Asian American Association asked poet Arthur Sze—who will deliver an “intimate lecture” on Saturday at 2 PM—a few questions.
The last time you participated in a Library program, you recorded a reading of and commentary on Walt Whitman’s Crossing Brooklyn Ferry for our online “Poetry of America” series; now you are coming to the Library in person for the Asian American Literature Festival. What is it like to come to the Library for this event? What are you looking forward to?
It is an honor to be coming to the Library of Congress for the second Asian American Literature Festival, and I feel a responsibility to make the best contribution I can. I hope my “intimate lecture” will be memorable: I look forward to celebrating the works of many Asian American poets, some renowned, some unknown. I look forward to all of the conversations at the festival and am excited at how the organizers have envisioned a “community-generated cooperative space for sharing.”
The theme of this year’s Asian American Literature Festival is “Care + Caregiving.” What about this theme is particularly important to you when thinking about Asian American literature?
As a prefatory remark, let me say that I believe the theme of “Care + Caregiving” is an important issue for our country and for the world. In terms of the upcoming Asian American Literature Festival, I believe “Care + Caregiving” is important because we need to take care, be mindful of and support each other. I see some of the goals o