Poet selected as new Grand Canyon Astronomer in Residence

The Grand Canyon Astronomer in Residence program launched in 2021, offers professional and amateur astronomers, educators, writers, and artists the opportunity to practice and share their discipline under the night sky.

Joining Arizona Horizon is poet Lauren Camp, the newest Astronomer in Residence. Camp’s work focuses on blending science and personal history, taking inspiration from unrecognized women scientists in different fields of study.

Camp will live and work at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park until August 28, 2022.

About Lauren Camp

Camp is the author of five books, most recently Took House (Tupelo Press), which received the American Fiction Award in Poetry. Other honors include the Dorset Prize and finalist citations for the Arab American Book Award, North American Book Award, and New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. Her work has appeared in Kenyon Review, Poem-a-Day, Blackbird, World Literature Today and The Los Angeles Review, and has been translated into Mandarin, Turkish, Spanish, Serbian and Arabic. Camp’s work has been supported by fellowships from Black Earth Institute, Denver Botanic Gardens and the Taft-Nicholson Center. She lives in New Mexico, where she teaches creative writing to people of all ages. 

For more information about Camp, visit laurencamp.com.

About Astronomer in Residence program

The Astronomer in Residence program offers professional and amateur astronomers, educators, scientists, writers, and visual and performing artists the opportunity to practice and share their discipline under one of the most pristine night skies in the United States.

Through artwork and educational outreach, the program inspires park visitors about the values of dark night skies, spreads awareness about the threats of light pollution, and explores society’s complex relationships with natural darkness.                                                                                         

The program is modeled after the Artist in Residence program popular in parks across the country. The park hosts a chosen applicant on-site for a short-term residency; the resident, in turn, completes projects in their medium through direct experience of the park’s resources. Some amount of finished product is donated to the park and some amount of visitor outreach is agreed upon based on the nature of the residency. The difference is that this program focuses on night skies, astronomy, and the various disciplines studying natural darkness.

Click here for more information.