DAVID BUDBILL (1940-2016)—poet, playwright, and novelist—moved to Vermont from New York City in 1969, where he lived for 45 years with his wife, the painter Lois Eby. David’s colorful life included being a track star in high school, attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City, teaching at Lincoln University (a historically Black college in Pennsylvania), laboring on a Christmas tree farm, playing myriad musical instruments, working for racial and economic justice, tending a large vegetable garden, cutting his own wood, riding a mountain bike, and writing a staggering amount of creative material. David authored eight books of poems, seven plays, two novels, a collection of short stories, two picture books for children, dozens of essays, and the libretto for an opera. His published works include Broken Wing, Tumbling Toward the End, Park Songs, Happy Life (on the Poetry.orgbestseller list for 29 weeks), While We’ve Still Got Feet, Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse, Judevine: The Complete Poems, Why I Came to Judevine, From Down to the Village, Pulp Cutter’s Nativity, The Chain Saw Dance, Bones on Black Spruce Mountain, Snowshoe Trek to Otter River, and Christmas Tree Farm. David also wrote many plays, including Different Planet, A Song for My Father, Little Acts of Kindness, Thingy World!, and Two for Christmas. His iconic play Judevine, which is based on the book, has now been produced 67 times in 24 states.
David served as an occasional commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Garrison Keillor frequently read from David’s poems on The Writer’s Almanac. His honors include an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from New England College, a Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. David loved to write but he also loved to perform and did so in many venues—from schools and prisons in Vermont to performance spaces in New York City—often with renowned multi-instrumentalist William Parker and other musical collaborators including Hamid Drake. For several years in the 90s David also served as master of ceremonies for The Vision Festival. David and William Parker also produced multiple CDs together—including Songs for a Suffering World, Zen Mountains/Zen Streets, Tumbling Toward the End, and What I Saw This Morning—blending words and sound in a moving tapestry of love for humanity.
