Podcast: Matt Donovan on “Guy with a Gun”

Apple Podcasts logo

Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Listen on Google Podcasts.Google Podcast logo

Spotify Logo Green

Listen on Spotify.

 

Transcript: Matt Donovan Podcast

Matt Donovan speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about his prose poem “Guy with a Gun,” which appeared in The Common’s fall issue. Matt talks about the conversation that inspired the poem—an encounter with a Sandy Hook parent that highlights the complex gray area around guns and gun ownership. He also discusses how his poetry collection about the issue of guns in the US evolved from a nonfiction book proposal, his aims in undertaking the project, and his job running The Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College.

a picture of matt donovan next to issue 23's cover of buttons

Matt Donovan is the author of three collections of poetry, and a book of lyric essays. His latest collection, The Dug-Up Gun Museum, came out last year from BOA Editions. He is the recipient of a Whiting Award, a Rome Prize in Literature, a Creative Capital Grant, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature. He serves as director of The Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College.

Read Matt’s poems in The Common at thecommononline.org/tag/Matt-Donovan.

Read more from Matt at mattdonovanwriting.com.

 

The Common is a print and online literary magazine publishing stories, essays, and poems that deepen our collective sense of place. On our podcast and in our pages, The Common features established and emerging writers from around the world. Read more and subscribe to the magazine at thecommononline.org, and follow us on Twitter @CommonMag.

Emily Everett is managing editor of the magazine and host of the podcast. Her debut novel is forthcoming from Putnam Books. Her stories appear in theKenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House Online, and Mississippi Review. She is a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow. Say hello on Twitter @Public_Emily.

Podcast: Matt Donovan on “Guy with a Gun”

Related Posts

Podcast: Kevin Dean on “Patron Saints”

KEVIN DEAN
Kevin talks to Managing Editor Emily Everett about the process of writing and revising his Issue 27 story "Patron Saints." The story follows a young American trying to find his place in Cairo, while the city roils with political uncertainty after the Arab Spring uprising.

image of the author and issue cover

Podcast: Maria de Caldas Antão on ”My Freedom”

MARIA DE CALDAS ANTÃO
Maria de Caldas Antão speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her poem “My Freedom,” which explores the idea of freedom, and what it might mean to be free: personally, politically, physically, philosophically.

History of Sound cover.

What We’re Reading: August 2024

WHAT WE'RE READING
As the summer wanes, our community recommends three pithy books that can help stretch out the season’s end.