David Heymann is an architect, contributing writer for Places Journal, and a University of Texas Distinguished Teaching Professor. He is interested in what people want from nature. Heymann has been a writer in residence at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston's Dora Maar House, the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center, and the Bogliasco Foundation Liguria Study Center; a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome; and a participant in The Arctic Circle program. His essay "Landscape is Our Sex" received the ASLA Bradford Williams Medal. Heymann's architectural work has been variously published and recognized with design honors, including selection for Emerging Voices by the Architectural League of New York. My Beautiful City Austin is his first book of fiction.