"What Is the Grass doesnt possess a single inelegant sentence or poorly expressed thought. [ A]n excellent opportunity to re-examine the work of one of Americas first major poets through the prose of one of its best living ones." -- Scott Bradfield - Washington Post "[ Doty] animates Walt Whitmans joyful proclamation that everything is connected." -- The New Yorker "A celebration of gay manhood, queerness, and the power and elasticity of poetry." -- Martha Anne Toll - NPR "What Is the Grass may be the definitive book on Whitmans life, afterlife and poetry. But its the moments in Dotys own life that the book truly glistens." -- Jessica Ferri - Los Angeles Times "[ Mark] Doty puts on a clinic in how to read closely but expansively. This is shining proof that criticism can make you want to hold it close." -- John Freeman - LitHub "[ A] masterful example [ of the hybrid memoir]weaving a close reading of Whitmans life and writings into Dotys own ruminations on art, queerness, humanism, and the American experience." -- Arianna Rebolini - Buzzfeed "[ A] dazzling and discursive meditation on Walt Whitmans poetry. In this homage to a poet whose voice has become a permanent presence in his head, [ Doty] has written a masterpiece, one that is as rapturously fine as the book he so lovingly and intelligently elucidates." -- Phil Gambone - Gay and Lesbian Review "Exuberant. This is Doty at his best: In gorgeous, calibrated sentences, he evokes the flourishes and sprung rhythms that make Whitman so contemporary." -- Hamilton Cain - San Francisco Chronicle "What Is the Grass is a deep dive into Walt Whitmans life, work, worldview, and something that feels like his cosmic theology. As if that werent enough, were also invited into Mark Dotys own candid self-seeking, in episodes of the authors life rendered in generous complexity. This beautiful, ingenious book affirms my belief in language as a living thing, and in the universe as a place overflowing with purpose and meaning. I wish all of the great poets could be reintroduced to me in such fashion!" -- Tracy K. Smith "Quick-witted, slyly erotic, and sometimes ecstatic, this book explores Mark Dotys relationship with Walt Whitman, or with the idea of Walt Whitman. It is intimate in its reality and in all that it imagines, and it captures with splendid lyricism the authors generous obsession with his forebear. Mark Doty has written a literate and lovely volume." -- Andrew Solomon
