Where can we read some of your recent work?
I’ve had a number of poems published
in some wonderful journals recently, including The Shallow Ends,
The Los Angeles Review,
Image
and Psaltery & Lyre.
Last fall, my fourth book was published! Turquoise Door is a collection of poems rooted in some of the geography and history of Taos, New Mexico a century ago.
What are you reading right now?
I never stop reading poetry—savoring
individual poems I find online each day and dipping into the books and journals
gathered in piles around my house. I’m wowed by something new all the time, but
I’ve been very moved by a few fantastic anthologies that have come out
recently: Alongside We Travel:
Contemporary Poets on Autism (edited by Sean Thomas Dougherty) and A Constellation of Kisses (edited by
Diane Lockward). I’ve read both cover to cover, and felt lucky to be included
in them.
I’ve been able to stretch out into fiction, too. I reread Arundhati Roy’s
incredible debut novel The God of Small
Things and am now deep into a translated novel by German writer Jenny
Erpenbeck called The End of Days.
Oh, and graphic memoirs! A while back, I did a presentation about One Hundred Hungers, my book
that imagines my father’s boyhood in Iraq, and someone mentioned the graphic
memoir Poppies of Iraq by Brigitte
Findakly. Ever since, I’ve also been searching out work in this genre.
Reading, yum. I love all of it.
Always have.
Though it’s not reading, it’s also worth mentioning a few of the poetry
podcasts I listen to as I’m driving, including two that are consistently
remarkable: Between the Covers and Commonplace.
What’s next for you? I have a busy fall season of presentations. I will be traveling to Idaho, Wisconsin, and Missouri, as well as doing some special events in my home state of New Mexico. There’s more info here: https://www.laurencamp.com/events-with-lauren.html
And I have a new book due out next spring from Tupelo Press!
Author website: www.laurencamp.com
Facebook: Lauren Camp
Twitter: @poetlauren
Instagram: laurencamp
Lauren Camp is the author of four poetry collections. She is the recipient of the Dorset Prize, a Black Earth Institute fellowship, residencies from Willapa Bay AiR and The Taft-Nicholson Center, and a finalist citation for the Arab American Book Award. Her work has been translated into Mandarin, Turkish, Spanish and Arabic.