He grew up in what he called the "bland suburban wasteland" of New Jersey and in Venezuela, where he remembers first glimpsing widespread poverty and social injustice. His truly impressive academic career has consistently sought and earned the most grueling honors. The remarkably low acceptance rate of students into Amherst College attracted him to the school. When enrolled, he discovered a conservative and occasionally homophobic culture and endured the extreme rigors of a premed major. Yet, Campo's time at Amherst was not wholly unhappy. He met his partner, Jorge Arroyo, a fellow premed major and son of Latin immigrants, and studied with Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, a leading figure in the academic discipline known as queer studies. Campo completed his medical education at Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, two world-class facilities.
While at Harvard Medical School, he received a scholarship to study creative writing at Boston University, where his teachers included Robert Pinsky and Derek Walcott. In a later poem, "A Poet's Education," collected in Diva (1999), Campo remembers Walcott's intimidating yet inspirational classroom presence. On the first day, Walcott "outlined what his expectations were, / And warned us if we didn't read, his rage / Would be exacted on our timid verse, / Which, by the way, we would not read in class." Campo's time at Boston University was extremely productive, as he produced more poems than his first manuscript could include.
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