{"product_id":"flyover-country-poems-by-austin-smith","title":"Smith, Austin: Flyover Country","description":"\u003cp\u003ePrinceton University Press (paperback, 2018)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublisher Marketing: A new collection about violence and the rural Midwest from a poet whose first book was hailed as \"memorable\" (Stephanie Burt, \u003ci\u003eYale Review\u003c\/i\u003e) and \"impressive\" (\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFlyover Country\u003c\/i\u003e is a powerful collection of poems about violence: the violence we do to the land, to animals, to refugees, to the people of distant countries, and to one another. Drawing on memories of his childhood on a dairy farm in Illinois, Austin Smith explores the beauty and cruelty of rural life, challenging the idea that the American Midwest is mere \"flyover country,\" a place that deserves passing over. At the same time, the collection suggests that America itself has become a flyover country, carrying out drone strikes and surveillance abroad, locked in a state of perpetual war that Americans seem helpless to stop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn these poems, midwestern barns and farmhouses are linked to other lands and times as if by psychic tunnels. A poem about a barn cat moving her kittens in the night because they have been discovered by a group of boys resonates with a poem about the house in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis. A poem beginning with a boy on a farmhouse porch idly swatting flies ends with the image of people fleeing before a drone strike. A poem about a barbwire fence suggests, if only metaphorically, the debate over immigration and borders. Though at times a dark book, the collection closes with a poem titled \"The Light at the End,\" suggesting the possibility of redemption and forgiveness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBuilding on Smith's reputation as an accessible and inventive poet with deep insights about rural America, \u003ci\u003eFlyover Country\u003c\/i\u003e also draws profound connections between the Midwest and the wider world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":31758214135831,"sku":"9780691181578","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0004\/6497\/7956\/products\/content_ebac915c-f454-4e47-ac01-851159d4a413.jpg?v=1599952473","url":"https:\/\/open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com\/products\/flyover-country-poems-by-austin-smith","provider":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","version":"1.0","type":"link"}