“Lauren Camp is not only a talented poet of national renown, but a gifted teacher with exciting ideas about how to engage the people of New Mexico in the writing, reading, and overall enjoyment of poetry.”

— Michelle Laflamme-Childs
Executive Director, New Mexico Arts

Selected as a 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow.

Look for the coloring and activity book Imagine Nature in libraries across New Mexico. A project of the Department of Cultural Affairs, featuring poems by Lauren Camp and illustrations by 15 artists from around the state.

This project was conceived by New Mexico Poet Laureate Lauren Camp to help people across the state—especially in remote and arts-underserved regions—have the chance to explore poetry and write about their home communities.

Camp has partnered with New Mexico Arts to present this project in cities, towns, and villages. As of February 2025, they have reached 20 counties, inviting participants to respond to writing exercises. The responses are collected and used to assemble poems about each community in the words of those who live there.

The finished poems will be printed as broadsides. One broadside will be gifted back to each community and another displayed in an exhibition of the full series at the Palace of the Governors.

Hear Lauren talk about the New Mexico Epic Poem Project.

Poet Lauren Camp was selected as the fourth Astronomer-in-Residence at Grand Canyon National Park. In Old Sky grew out of that experience. This is the first poetry book published by Grand Canyon Conservancy. It includes color photos across and into the Canyon and out to the cosmos, as well as an epic poem assembled from hundreds of responses by visitors to Grand Canyon National Park during the month of Camp’s residency.

“Camp illuminates all the pieces […] each element is an entity on its own: the canyon, the sky, the dark, the light.”

— World Literature Today

Poems at The Academy of American Poets

86 Light Years Away

Fear of

Bluest

“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, Grand Canyon National Park
Dark Skies Coordinator / Park Ranger