"What makes this grand work of criticism is Mason's own voice . Mason reveals a glorious passion for literature, as well as an almost Whitmanesque openness to the ideas and emotions that inspire creative acts at all levels."-- Library Journal (starred review) "A combination of penetrating considerations of renowned and out-of-fashion poets and keen appreciations of the interplay of landscape and culture . Clearly, reading (and writing) is a form of travel and transcendence for the author, who conveys this feeling in erudite, often intoxicating language . Attached to the notion that all places are stories and all stories places, Mason . draws an illuminating literary cartography with many fascinating ports of call."-- Kirkus Reviews "Mason expertly weaves the stories of great writers and places both ancient and new together into an imaginative literary odyssey . Throughout, Mason reminds the reader that travel writing should not be reduced to a lesser genre, and, from Herodotus to W.

H. Auden, has been an important literary tradition that enables us to explore the world through reading. This special collection leaves readers with a sense of wanderlust and a refreshing new lens through which to view literature and travel."-- Publishers Weekly "A collection of literary essays with a personal spin, as enjoyably unpredictable in their subject matter as the poems."-- The Times Literary Supplement " Voices, Places is a collection of essays on travelling and writing, and in every one of them Mason's sentences sing."-- The Australian "Mason finds poetry while exploring the world."-- The American Scholar "Thoughtful and thought-provoking, engaged and engaging."-- Midwest Book Review Praise for David Mason's previous books: "Only a rare poet can merge the reverence of Thoreau with the irreverence of Zorba the Greek to create something wholly unlike anything else -- and that is what Mason accomplishes in Davey McGravy .

"-- Brain Pickings on Davey McGravy "In charting this struggle and long awakening against the backdrop of Greece, Mason has made a book of memorable, meditative beauty."--Katherine Messenger, New Criterion , on News from the Village "Sometimes, it's in the landscape of grief that the soul is most unmoored. This tender and breathtaking child's poem--the story of a boy who mourns his mother's death, told in aching verse by the former poet laureate of Colorado--might illuminate a way toward healing."-- Chicago Tribune on Davey McGravy "Here is a chapter of our lives in cadences that will resonate with anyone who gives them a chance." --Ron Charles, Washington Post Book World , on Ludlow "Narrative poetry at its best." -- Publishers Weekly on The Country I Remember "Poetry criticism doesn't get any better than this." -- Booklist on The Poetry of Life.