Billie R. Tadros

“Never has the body felt both so literal and so disembodied as it does in Billie R. Tadros’s Am/Are I, which is a stunning intersection of the un-bodyment of language and the very real body at the heart of the injury and subsequent MRI’s the chapbook grapples with and puts on painful, beautiful display. It is an outstanding work, with unexpected, vibrant language and some of the most striking, visually arresting pages I have ever seen in a book.”

“Images of Billie R. Tadros’ own body fill the pages of Am/Are I like majestic dark paintings as we dive deep into her self, both literally and figuratively. These pictures intertwine perfectly with her carefully curated words. Even when she gives us just a sprinkle of her insight, surreal and from the depths of the mind, it is always profound and illuminating.”

“Billie R. Tadros’ inter: burial places is at once like a confession and a chant, carrying us through a narrative of seeking, something lost, desire, full of language like “your lips always decanting like prayer.” It feels urgent and dark and betwixt what was and what will be—even the poem titles play with sound and definition. “Everything I know about layers lies your body,” and “I love you irrationally. You love me like rationing.” are love letter to the turn of language, meaning, and the she in these poems. This is a masterful play at word and line and poem, a cut and stitched love song written in music and ash and heart meat. ”