New Mexico Poet Laureate Lauren Camp

photo by Bob Godwin

In Old Sky by Lauren Camp

NEW BOOK!
Is Is Enough

Texas Review Press • March 2026

“Lauren Camp’s new book is a stubborn testimonial to existence, to the sufficiency of life as it is in all its messy dailiness. I am moved by the speaker’s central struggle, which is her desperate attempt to hold onto and let go of her beloved father who held on even as he lost his memory, his history, himself. Is Is Enough is a tenacious elegy-in-the making, a book of being standing against nothingness.”

                            EDWARD HIRSCH

“Lauren Camp has the perfect touch. Her precise, exquisitely tuned poems lean us into scenes and understandings that feel both riveting and enduring…her poems deepen the world.”

                            NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

New Mexico Epic Poem Project

New Mexico Epic Poem Project

A three-year initiative by Lauren Camp
the second New Mexico Poet Laureate

This statewide project was conceived by Lauren Camp, in partnership with New Mexico Arts, to reach remote and arts–underserved regions, encouraging residents to explore poetry and write about their home communities.

The resulting poems about each town or village—written by, for and about those who live there—will be printed as broadsides. One will be gifted back to the community. The full series will be displayed at the Palace of the Governors and later made into an anthology.

Read more in About Place Journal
“On the Purpose of Connection”

Lauren received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship in support of this project.

Grand Canyon Astronomer in Residence

Grand Canyon National Park

Astronomer in Residence

“Lauren Camp was selected to explore through the written word the subtle emotions, aesthetic qualities, and complex thoughts we all feel under the vastness of the night skies. Grand Canyon Conservancy and the National Park Service are excited to facilitate one of the best poetic minds in the country towards Grand Canyon’s pristine natural darkness.”

               RADER LANE
               Dark Skies Coordinator
               Grand Canyon National Park

     National Park Service Video

In Old Sky
Grand Canyon Conservancy • 2024

This collection focuses on the expansive perspective of deep time. It grew out of Lauren’s experience as Astronomer in Residence.