[1] His book Sunday Evening at the Stardust Café was a finalist for the 2005 Philip Levine Prize in Poetry from the California State University, Fresno, and won the Iowa Source Poetry Book Prize.
Until the late 1970s, Butts lived in LeRoy, New York, near Rochester, where he was one of several poets who organized featured readings and open mics in the area, most notably at the Cobbs Hill Grille, a popular local bar and restaurant.
That same year, he also toured northern New Hampshire with South Dakota poet David Allan Evans, giving readings and discussions at community centers and bookstores.
from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 1995, and he taught creative writing workshops at the University of New Hampshire at Manchester.
In addition to teaching, Butts also co-edited Walking to Windward: Poets of New England, Volume 3 (Oyster River Press, 2001) and was the co-editor and publisher (with his wife S Stephanie) of the literary magazine Crying Sky: Poetry & Conversation.