HNGMN Books, 2015 • ISBN 9780990308225
Splendor mercilessly and glamorously displays heart and conscience—sharp with observation, unflinching, careful, thoughtful, and accomplished.
— Dara Barrois/Dixon (formerly Dara Wier)
Bludworth de Barrios’s sharp and exacting language examines what it means to be "good” and “kind” in a world where failure is often and easy, but must be learned from not because one strives for nobility (though there is that, underneath it all) but because the self is inevitably and always “the long art project of [one’s] life.
— Lina Mounzer
With poem titles that often act as elaborate prefaces to the speaker’s mental state, and finely wrought couplets in short, direct lines that tend to recursively loop words and language, Splendor lends itself well to a self who is self-critical and yet self-forgiving.
— Alyse Bensel, Los Angeles Review
Her work feels optimistic while remaining conscious of the difficulty of being human, exploring anxiety and insecurity, and ultimately existential doubt.
— Stephanie L. Johnson, FPH