Voices, Places: Essays - Softcover

"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