i'm probably betraying my body, by linda harris dolan

Poetry, chapbook, 44 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

i'm probably betraying my body traces the experience of one person amidst a body amidst a family full of bodies enduring genetic heart disease. When the speaker finds herself grief-stricken, newly fatherless, and invisibly sick—barely moving off the couch of her New York apartment—she recalls her family history as she tries to find her way forward.

dolan seeks the poetics of the day-to-day attempts at articulating illness, caregiving, healing, and grief. How is family made and remade through the sufferings of our bodies? How do we understand ourselves communally and individually? How do we listen and respond to the body and the self—especially within the often-silencing contexts of the medical industry, gender bias, and society? How does one navigate life within the sick body?

linda harris dolan is a poet and educator living with a chronic heart condition in unceded Lenapehoking (Brooklyn). She is Poet-in-Residence at NYU Langone Medical Center and Assistant Poetry Editor at Bellevue Literary Review. She holds an MFA in Poetry from NYU, where she was a Starworks Creative Writing Fellow, and an MA in English & American Literature from NYU. She is the recipient of fellowship support from The Rona Jaffe Foundation, the Starlight Foundation, Brooklyn Poets, and the Ruth Stone House. Her work is featured in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Bellevue Literary Review, Pigeon Pages, Barrow Street, Brooklyn Review, Cordella, and No, Dear, among others. She can be found online at lindaharrisdolan.com.