Fairchild’s ability not only to choose a story but to pace it and to reveal its meaning through the unfolding of the narrative is probably unmatched in contemporary American poetry. The incisive psychology, the vividly descriptive diction, the large repertoire of vocabulary, the weightiness of his settings and plots: all these contribute to the delightful sensation that one is reading, simultaneously, the best poetry and best prose. I cannot think of another living poet capable of delivering such pleasure… Not since James Wright has there been a poet so skilled at representing the minds and imaginations of ordinary American working people.
–The Southern Review With elegance and restrained subtlety, Mr. Fairchild interweaves topics that become something like musical themes, including the central theme of machine work… Anyone who can lay claim to the authorship of this much excellent poetry wins my unqualified and grateful admiration.
–Anthony Hecht

In an American culture which has always ignored or disdained class issues, Fairchild and Philip Levine are the only contemporary poets… who take work and the working class as their subjects… Almost throwbacks, like Steinbeck novels or Walker Evans photographs, Fairchild’s poems recover an America from which we have always turned our heads.
–PN Review (England)