"Times Beach is brimming, teeming with life. John Shoptaw, with breathtaking expanse and lasting intricacy, somehow writes a book in which we traverse the vastness of the American landscape–its gorgeous yet misguided rivers, its achingly honest and flawed humans, its forgotten bayous and wildlife–with a hand made nimble by reverence. In this, he revivifies American poetry into an optimism that is nearly as infinite as it is pained. This, however, is the only true kind of optimism, and how good it is to have a book of poetry that restores us into that abundance." –Katie Ford, author of Colosseum and Blood Lyrics