{"product_id":"the-dug-up-gun-museum","title":"The Dug-Up Gun Museum","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTraveling the nation, Matt Donovan examines the paradox of a country plagued by gun violence yet consumed with protecting the right to bear arms.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMatt Donovan’s \u003cem\u003eThe Dug-Up Gun Museum\u003c\/em\u003e confronts our country’s obsession with guns to explore America’s deep-seated political divisions and issues linked to violence, race, power, and privilege. Taking its title from an actual museum located in Wyoming, this collection of poems interrogates our country’s history of gun violence, asking questions about our fetishization of weapons, how mass shootings and the killing of unarmed civilians by police have become normalized, and the multitudinous ways in which firearms are ingrained in our country’s culture. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMuch like the poet himself, Donovan’s poems are dynamic and constantly in motion as he explores the ways in which capitalism and its relentless stream of content have led to a collective desensitization in the face of violence. In turns harrowing, elegiac, and ironic, set in locations ranging from Cody to Chicago, from Las Vegas to Sandy Hook, \u003cem\u003eThe Dug-Up Gun Museum\u003c\/em\u003e probes America’s failures, bizarre infatuations, and innumerable tragedies linked to guns.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eThe Dug-Up Gun Museum\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“In \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe Dug-Up Gun Museum\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, Matt Donovan is anthropologist, empath, parent, skeptic, participant-observer, critic, and mourner, as he takes us on a riveting tour (and indictment) of America’s gun culture. These profoundly moving and wildly expansive documentary poems travel through NRA Headquarters, Emergency Rooms, school hallways, memorials, museums, battle reenactments, police test-firing ranges, crime scenes, and historical sites searching for answers to an elusive question: how can this country be as hypervigilant as it is careless when it comes to lives of its citizens? With equal parts curiosity, grief, and rage, Donovan limns a clear-eyed hymn to one of the most pressing national issues of our time.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Erika Meitner, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eUseful Junk \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eand \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHoly Moly Carry Me\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“Matt Donovan’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe Dug Up Gun Museum \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eshould be required reading and at the center of any conversation concerning 2\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003end\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e Amendment rights.  Unlike most of these conversations, though, Donovan’s collection is complex, nuanced, and is not at all shy about cutting to the heart of the matter.  In verse, prose poems, and lyric essays, Donovan holds up a mirror to America, so that we may, as Yusef Komunyakaa once wrote, ‘see and know the terror we are made of.’” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cb\u003e—John Murillo, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKontemporary Amerikan Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eMass Shootings are Actually Pretty Rare, but Here’s What to Do If You’re Ever in One\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you’re lucky, there will be a fence.\u003cbr\u003eIf you’re lucky, the fence has been removed.\u003cbr\u003ePerhaps a mug of coffee, door wedge, scissors, \u003cbr\u003ethe broken leg of a chair. A turn, a shirt, a second.\u003cbr\u003ePerhaps a ball point pen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to calm, an element of surprise. In spite of, \u003cbr\u003e\u0026amp; yet. What would happen if the eyes, the throat,\u003cbr\u003ethe knees, a step away?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo he is here? Straight from the moment \u003cbr\u003ewithout end? The net, the gun? But you, the mesh?\u003cbr\u003eI can’t be silent enough.\u003cbr\u003eListen,\u003cbr\u003ehow quickly your heart is beating \u0026amp; mine.\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":45961657024741,"sku":"","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback (Signed)","offer_id":45961657057509,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/DugUpGunMuseum_CVR_RGB_SM.jpg?v=1644949677","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/products\/the-dug-up-gun-museum","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}