How to Make an American Mass Shooter: A Primer by Denise Miller
How to Make an American Mass Shooter: A Primer
by Denise Miller
Q, an imprint of Querencia Press
October 4, 2024
How to Make an American Mass Shooter: A Primer by Denise Miller, forthcoming from Q, is a poetry collection that “interrogates the ways in which mass shooters in the U.S. are the product of a deeply and historically nationalistic, xenophobic and racist society that uses the right to bear arms as means of violently enforcing these kinds of beliefs.”
I had the privilege of getting to review this chapbook early, and it was a very thought-provoking read!
How To Make an American Mass Shooter is semi-hybrid in style, with both traditionally formatted poetry and visual prints inspired by real-life articles from The New York Times. The overarching conceit behind the collection, as well as / as explained in the Introduction written by Miller, is that there is an “American Values curriculum” at work in formal and informal White culture that sows racism, misogyny, and violence which is aided in action by the pro-gun laws of our nation. Let me first say that I have no arguments with the sentiments expressed in this book, and books like this that point at such facts with creativity and clarity are so important to the literary and societal landscape.
So, what was the most thought-provoking to me while reading was how poetics and artistry worked to hold this heavy subject matter. The traditionally formatted poems throughout, all titled “Without [insert evocative gerund]” in answer to the “How” in the book’s title, are all short, tightly worded poems split every few pieces by the visual prints. These poems were my favorite part of the collection.
Not only were the diction choices sonically lovely (I’m a notorious sucker for sonics, especially such smooth alliteration as Miller uses) and densely connotative to unfold, but the small size of the poems in length and shape was very impactful. In a way, they mirrored bullets—tiny but powerful, certain to cause a big reaction one way or another. The titling conceit also reminded me of bullets in that they kept coming, one after the other in the same way, hitting hard and harder as they went on. It lent to a foreboding mood as the book went on, akin to a chanting or invocation of an impending horror/tragedy.
I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about the visual print pieces. I didn’t look up how close to the inspiration articles they were, but besides redacting the shooters’ names and sometimes a missing article (grammar-wise), a blind reading wouldn’t suggest much change from the source material, maybe just more of a summarization perhaps. They felt out of place for me against the rhythm of the “Without” poems, but I think I would’ve felt differently if the Introduction was spliced up and inserted around the visual prints. On its own, the Introduction came off a little heavy-handed to me, both in the conceit of education and as a contextual opening to the poetry. Personally, I think it would’ve had more impact as micro essays throughout the collection instead, and even Miller’s lovely art of shooting victims in this section would also be moving to see more throughout the book. Which again, such splicing would’ve more justified the use and placement of the article-based visual prints, as well as made me more prepared for the style/structure shift into the “Excerpts from ‘How They Got Their Guns’ […]” section at the end of the collection. (Maybe I’ve got it wrong and that final section is supposed to act more as a Works Cited than as part of the collection, but it came across to me as part of the creative work since it was a few pages out from the similarly styled Acknowledgments section).
Overall, Miller is a precise poet, especially in brevity. The “Without” poems are very hooking and makes me want to read more from them!
How to Make an American Mass Shooter: A Primer releases one week from today on October 4, 2024.
Learn more about the collection and (pre)order your copy here: https://www.querenciapress.com/how-to-make-an-american-mass-shooter-by-denise-miller
Thank you Querencia Press for the complimentary ARC of this title! I appreciate the early opportunity to read Denise’s work and look forward to seeing the final release out in the world. :)
— Kylie