Mixing prose and poetry, images and imagery, Simmons B. Buntin presents an artistic vision of landscape – natural and built – that defines livable places more broadly than just human communities. The discussion begins with a slideshow of vibrant, sustainable neighborhoods detailed in his new book, Unsprawl. He'll recite poetry from the sub-urban fringe. And he'll conclude by reading a Sonoran desert essay that explores the public and personal risks of remixing spaces as places.
Speaker: Simmons B. Buntin is the author of two books of poetry: Bloom (2010) and Riverfall (2005), both published by Ireland's Salmon Poetry. His book of community case studies, Unsprawl: Remixing Spaces as Places, was published by Planetizen Press in January 2013. His poetry, prose, and photography have appeared in such journals as the North American Review, Mid-American Review, Kyoto Journal, Orion, Isotope, and the Bulletin of Science, Technology, and Society. He has been awarded a fellowship in poetry from the Colorado Commission on the Arts, a residency in writing at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, artist grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and Tucson-Pima Arts Council, and awards from the Academy of American Poets, The Atlantic, and others.
Simmons is the founder and editor-in-chief of the international magazine Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built + Natural Environments, publishing online since 1998. He founded Terrain.org after graduating with a master's degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Colorado - Denver, and has since earned an MFA in creative writing (nonfiction) from the University of Arizona, where he has worked since 2004 as web program manager. Simmons lectures and teaches on occasion -- including a "Poetry in Bloom" workshop at the UA Poetry Center this spring.
With his wife and two daughters, he has lived in the community of Civano in southeast Tucson since 2000, where he founded the city-chartered neighborhood association.
