On the Writing, Editing, Urban Planning & More

Simmons Buntin Interviewed by Famous Writing Routines

Simmons Buntin's writing space

Simmons Buntin Interviewed by Famous Writing Routines

Famous Writing Routines, which runs a series of fascinating interviews with famous and up-and-coming writers alike about their writing processes, recently interview Simmons Buntin for their series. Read the interview here.

The interview begins with a question about how Simmons founded Terrain.org, the world’s first place-based online literary magazine, and then moves to a question about how urban planning and creative writing intersect in his work. Simmons discusses some of the visionary strategies discussed in his Unsprawl book, as well as what he sees as the most pressing challenge facing the planning, design, and development of communities today. He then discusses the Dear America book project, based on Terrain.org’s Letter to America series. The interview concludes with questions about Simmons’s writing routine, what author he would have a conversation with from throughout history, what books he is reading at the moment., and what his current writing workspace looks like.

A few excerpts:

“My writing today—whether poetry or prose—is seeded in my view of the world as someone trained in urban planning, and particularly someone who advocates for walkable, livable communities. Come to think of it, that’s the basis for Terrain.org, too—the nexus between the built and natural environments where it exists, and a discourse where it does not.”

“I think the most pressing immediate challenge for planning, design, and development (or redevelopment) is access, and I don’t mean that from a transit perspective, although that’s related. I mean access as it relates to equity, which is to say equal opportunities for everyone to have access to affordable housing, to clean water, to clean air, to healthy food, to safety and security, to nature—regardless of their income or race or sexual orientation or level of physical or mental ability or any other attribute for which so many people have been unfairly and usually en masse marginalized.”

“My writing routine is to not have a writing routine. I long ago learned that I’m a deadline writer—for prose, at least—and so I often work backwards from a deadline, starting with what I hope is enough time to finish. That’s probably why I was so productive in grad school—I had an essay due every three or four weeks, so I’d get it done.”

Read the full interview at Famous Writing Routines.