American Treasure

“What does it mean to be free, especially when one’s personal freedoms have come at another’s expense? Jill McDonough’s newest book takes on this question and others, examining what fantasies we engage when we declare ourselves free from pain, free from want, free from prison, free from fear, or free from history, when none of us are ever free from such things. But it’s this shared fantasies of self-governance, McDonough’s biting poems suggest, that are too precious for us to abandon, becoming the real ‘American Treasure’ we each hoard for ourselves. In poems both hilarious and deeply personal, McDonough examines how our refusal to be held accountable for anything finally shackles us to a vision of America that is anything but free. The funniest jokes are, in reality, deadly serious; American Treasure is a wildly funny book.”

—Paisley Rekdal

“What I love about Jill McDonough’s poems are the way that they capture the complexity and expansiveness of what it means to be human—how our time on this earth is beautiful and frustrating and often full of contradictions. Reading American Treasure feels like getting a beer with an old friend who is equal parts earnest and hilarious, someone who is full of empathy but who also calls it like they see it. American Treasure reminds me why McDonough is one of my favorite poets.”

—Clint Smith