Linda Harris Dolan
Current Season Poet
Linda Harris Dolan packs an astonishing level of emotional openness and honesty into her latest chapbook, i’m probably betraying my body (Bottlecap Press, 2024), a collection that interweaves the story of personal illness with the voices and experiences of loved ones who have also struggled with congenital heart disease, as well as the experiences of caregivers whose lives have been profoundly shaped by illness. Throughout these complex poems, Dolan offers an empathetic and humanizing space for people who often need to advocate for themselves when interacting with a healthcare industry that often misunderstands or minimizes invisible illness and disability. In one review of this collection, Eleanor Ball writes that the book serves as “a frank, vulnerable, and dynamic exploration of invisible illness and grief. Nobody but Dolan could tell this story, and nobody but Dolan could tell it like this.”
Linda Harris Dolan is a professor of poetry at NYU Langone Health, where she leads workshops with pediatric patients, caregivers, medical professionals and students. She has received fellowship support from organizations such as the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Starlight Foundation, and Brooklyn Poets. Linda’s poems are published widely, and she is the recipient of fellowship support from The Rona Jaffe Foundation, the Starlight Foundation, and the Ruth Stone House. She’s particularly interested in the poetry that arises from our individual and communal vernaculars, and she helps students find the poetry within their own everyday cadences and voices.
Dolan’s reading (with Carissa Natalia Baconguis) will be followed by conversation with Adrie Rose in Weinstein Auditorium in Wright Hall on Tuesday, October 7 at 7 p.m. Free & open to the public. Books will be sold and a signing will follow. Livestream also available on the BDPC YouTube page.