An Unforgettable Conversation with Lauren Camp
Photo Credit: Bob Godwin
Lauren Camp is a poet, writer, and educator and the author of eight poetry collections, most recently In Old Sky (Grand Canyon Conservancy, 2024). She is currently the Poet Laureate of New Mexico. Lauren’s poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Mid-American Review, Kenyon Review, Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day. Her work has been translated into Turkish, Mandarin, Serbian, Arabic, French and Spanish. She teaches for Poetry Out Loud-New Mexico and leads her own community workshops.
She was awarded a 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship. She has also been honored with a Dorset Prize and finalist citations for the Arab American Book Award, the Housatonic Book Award, and the Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry. In 2022, she was an Astronomer in Residence at Grand Canyon National Park. Lauren is the recipient of fellowships from Denver Botanic Gardens, The Taft-Nicholson Center for Environmental Humanities, and the Black Earth Institute. She has been a visiting writer at the Mayo Clinic, along with being the artist in residence at Lowell Observatory and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
It was a pleasure asking Lauren if she could name one of her favorite poems written by another poet and explain why it is one of her favorites, how her latest book came about, what keeps her creative and wanting to keep writing poems, and so much more.
UZOMAH: Is there any collection of poems that you have written that you would suggest that best reflects your personal style?
LAUREN: I have eight collections of poetry. Each one, in some way, reflects a me at a certain time, experiencing something profound or simply engaging in a specific place and time of life. When I read from any of them to an audience, it is like holding up a photo of myself and recognizing that person, but also seeing them from some distance.
U: Have you experimented with any different poetic forms or styles? If so, how was the experience? Are there styles you still use?
L: The form I return to again and again is the pantoum, a Malaysian form of folk song from the 15th century. It offers just enough structure without being too narrow in its demands. I’ve taught this form to many different groups, and it always results in an exhilarating surprise!
U: Can you name one of your favorite poems written by another poet and explain why it is one of your favorites?
L: I love Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Red Brocade,” which—small as it is—offers a generous perspective of Arab people and their social culture. She is so good at showing humanity through easy language. It’s always a pleasure to read her work.
U: What keeps you creative and wanting to keep writing poems?
L: Because I don’t want certain experiences to slip away, and because I want to better consider grief and love, and other situations I happen upon, I write. A poem helps me craft a marker for certain life events, for example, elements of my landscape, relationships, trips, occasions, distress and danger. Poems let me ask questions that might not have answers. Poems let me hold multiple ideas and directions without requiring a straight, simple narrative.
U: Can you discuss how your latest book of poems came about?
L: My new book, In Old Sky, evolved from the month I spent as Astronomer-in-Residence at Grand Canyon National Park. My focus was on the pristine natural darkness in such a profound place and what was visible, audible, and/or tangible within it. I followed dark paths along the rim and into the Canyon all month, putting words to that spaciousness and history that hovers above and into the Canyon. The book was published in spring 2024 by Grand Canyon Conservancy, the nonprofit partner for this national park.
U: Is there anything unique or special that drew you to poetry and writing?
L: I came to writing from a career as a visual artist. As time went on, words crept into the artwork. I was already writing imagistic lines of poetry as titles for the works. I wrote wall text to accompany the works on display, and people called it poetry. At some point, I put the artmaking aside and turned my full creative attention to writing poems.
U: What do you hope people get from going to your community workshops?
L: I have taught for more than 15 years, working with people of all ages (from elementary school to high school, college, and then elders) in numerous venues (literary centers, museums, libraries, and schools). In every case, I strive to help writers build confidence. I give permission to bring themselves to the blank page or a text we’re considering. I help them to see that poems are not too difficult to understand, that a poem requires their participation…and that they can write, that there isn’t a right way.
U: How are visual arts similar to literary arts? What are the differences? Do you prefer using one to express your creative vision?
L: These days, I no longer make visual art, but everything I had learned in art-making—every sensibility I had for negative space, texture, composition, color, and pattern—folded into the poems. They are the techniques and “underpainting” I use for my writing. So, to me, there are a lot of overlaps.
U: What is the most critical part of a poem?
L: The sound and shape of it. No, the beginning. Or maybe the ending. That’s the thing about poems for me… it’s all of it. The whole little package and getting all the parts—the sonics, the images, the emotional resonances—to feel right.
U: How can the literary arts help dispel common stereotypes about the Arab community and other highly affronted communities?
L: There is such value in writing one’s experience. The effort, and ultimately the poem, can help the writer to preserve pieces of their experience or awareness. But, each poem also has the chance to untie and widen staid stereotypes based on generalizations about entire groups of people. Line by line, the poet articulates a kind of humanity by bringing themself to the page. That singular perception might be enough to start to dismantle ignorance and reframe the understanding of a culture, faith, race, gender, or other group divider.
Please visit her site here for more information about Laurens’ writing, teaching, and poetry. Information about Lauren’s experience while at the Grand Canyon can be found here. For more details about Lauren’s most recent book, please visit here.
