Thomas Simmons received his PhD in English in 1988 from the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked primarily with future poet laureate Robert Pinsky. Simmons taught for four years at MIT before spending 24 years on the faculty of the University of Iowa. Now an independent scholar and poet, he has published three prior books of scholarship, four books of creative nonfiction, and three collections of poetry. He lives in Grinnell, Iowa.

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• Acknowledgments – Introduction – The Landmine in the Garden – Obscenities of Religion on the Site of the Body – Giving Godhead: Performative Poetics as a Manifestation of Trauma-Induced Inductive Reasoning – Dreamland Trash and Autobiographical Cultural Critique – The Broken Body as an Epistemological Statement – No Ledge Left to Love: The Broken Body on an Astral Scale – The Ethical Imperative of The Mother Wart – Conclusion: First Four Books of Poems.

Thomas Simmons received his PhD in English in 1988 from the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked primarily with future poet laureate Robert Pinsky. Simmons taught for four years at MIT before spending 24 years on the faculty of the University of Iowa. Now an independent scholar and poet, he has published three prior books of scholarship, four books of creative nonfiction, and three collections of poetry. He lives in Grinnell, Iowa.

Select Guide Rating

• Acknowledgments – Introduction – The Landmine in the Garden – Obscenities of Religion on the Site of the Body – Giving Godhead: Performative Poetics as a Manifestation of Trauma-Induced Inductive Reasoning – Dreamland Trash and Autobiographical Cultural Critique – The Broken Body as an Epistemological Statement – No Ledge Left to Love: The Broken Body on an Astral Scale – The Ethical Imperative of The Mother Wart – Conclusion: First Four Books of Poems.

Thomas Simmons received his PhD in English in 1988 from the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked primarily with future poet laureate Robert Pinsky. Simmons taught for four years at MIT before spending 24 years on the faculty of the University of Iowa. Now an independent scholar and poet, he has published three prior books of scholarship, four books of creative nonfiction, and three collections of poetry. He lives in Grinnell, Iowa.

Select Guide Rating

• Acknowledgments – Introduction – The Landmine in the Garden – Obscenities of Religion on the Site of the Body – Giving Godhead: Performative Poetics as a Manifestation of Trauma-Induced Inductive Reasoning – Dreamland Trash and Autobiographical Cultural Critique – The Broken Body as an Epistemological Statement – No Ledge Left to Love: The Broken Body on an Astral Scale – The Ethical Imperative of The Mother Wart – Conclusion: First Four Books of Poems.