"I could liken this book to a verse drama or film in which voices mix and cross, documentary history meshes with dialogue, photography is framed and given meaning by language. But the cumulative effect of "Shut Up Shut Down" outdistances such description. The several long poems that make up this book build into each other with devastating force and understatement, breaking poetic boundaries, regenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature. Nowak is a highly gifted and conscious artist, carrying, like the oldest bards, a group narrative which must be told if his listeners are to understand who they are and on what their lives depend--and this, in our time, means all of us."--Adrienne Rich
