“Fox has invented a form equal to his subject, a form both radically austere and musical, a form more compelling, emotionally expressive, and seemingly necessary than I have seen in contemporary American poems for some time.” —Forrest Gander
“The verse of Reading Sand is expansive and illusory, often appearing devoid of life; but by reading the signs Fox’s collection provides—the vast complexities that seem as open space—one can’t help but see its endless possibilities, a poetry both as soft, and harsh, as the desert wind.” —James Irdell, Isle, Summer 2004
“William L. Fox has filled up William Carlos William’s famous red wheelbarrow with the sand of the Great Basin.” —Gregory Louis Candela, Southwest BookViews, Fall 2002
“Fox’s poetry—sparse, carefully repetitive, typographically austere—evokes an aesthetic of erosion: language rubbed by the elements down to its expressive essence.” —Las Vegas Life, March 2002
“Reading Sand is intended to be a visual experience. . . . That is, at least part of the meaning of each poem, sometimes the whole meaning, comes from the visual appearance of the poem on the page. These are poems that pay homage, by imitation, to the Great Basin Desert.” —Martin Naparsteck, Salt Lake City Tribune, 2 June 2002
