"A luminescent narrative...the stanza spacing, the line breaks and the quiet rhythms of Shannon's speech ...suggest the continent's vastness...Shannon's understated lyricism -- the apprehension of nature before the onset of self-consciousness...reflects heightened maturity in McGrath's work." -- Kansas City Star

"McGrath takes us back to a pivotal point in United States history through the curious eyes of an unsung hero. ['Shannon' is] an unexpected story and a gem of a book." -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"A meditation on a new, westering nation's discovery of its own inestimable riches....Surely, the sort of task McGrath undertakes here represents one of literature's profoundest pleasures. A poet tirelessly digs up something buried by days, years, centuries. And then he holds it to the light." -- Washington Post