Happy Book Birthday to Umbilical Cord by Hasan Namir! 🌈✨
Today, we’re celebrating the release of a tender and moving new poetry collection by Lambda Literary and Stonewall Book Award-winner Hasan Namir! Umbilical Cord is a joyful poetry memoir about parenting, fatherhood, love, and hope that documents the journey that Namir and his husband took to have a child. Read on to learn all about this highly anticipated follow-up to Namir’s 2019 poetic debut, War / Torn , as well as information about some upcoming events he will take part in!
Dear Child
Once upon a time
Your baba fell in love with your dad
We got married and dreamt of having a baby
A roller coaster of emotions and feelings
We were always hopeful
Happy Book Birthday to Umbilical Cord by Hasan Namir! In his sophomore poetry collection, Namir shares insight into his love story with his husband, the complexities of the IVF surrogacy process, and the first year as a family of three. Umbilical Cord is a heartfelt book for parents or would-be parents, with a universal message of hope.
We’re truly honoured to share this joyous book with readers everywhere. Umbilical Cord has been showing up on many Fall Book Preview lists, including CBC Books, Lambda Literary, Reads Rainbow, 49th Shelf, and BC Booklook. It has also received a wealth of endorsement blurbs from writers across the country. Chantal Gibson, author of How She Read and with/holding (as well as the forthcoming novel, Beautiful Users, which we will publish in 2023!), writes, “Umbilical Cord is an intimate exploration of a new family forming and transforming in and against the tug and pull of generational, cultural and societal expectations… Part memoir, part love letter, Umbilical Cord threads together an imperfect life with a forgiving stitch—each poem with an I on joy.” Adrienne Gruber, author of Q&A and Buoyancy Control adds, “The poems in Umbilical Cord are a deeply personal, and often heartbreaking, account of two men in love who find a way to have the child they so badly wanted. This book brings to light the transformative experience of creating a family despite bigotry and adversity and the promises of unconditional love every parent makes.”
Additional Praise for Umbilical Cord
“Tender. Touching, this book-length poetic narrative reminds me of Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems: “Every day you play with the light of the universe.” Namir’s love poems to his infant son and partner (interspersed with photos), remind me of Neruda’s poems interspersed with Picasso’s drawings. Umbilical Cord: two art forms; two fathers—the narrative of family made anew.”
—Betsy Warland, author of Bloodroot: Tracing the Untelling of Motherloss (2nd Edition, 2021)
“Hasan Namir returns to poetry with Umbilical Cord—a collection at once an expansion of Namir’s interest in experimental and confessional forms but also a diary and a baby book. Namir uses exciting poetic forms and his intimate, dynamic voice to expand our ideas of love, intimacy, and what a dream can look like in real life.”
—Matthew Walsh, author of These are not the potatoes of my youth
“Hasan Namir’s Umbilical Cord is an exceptionally beautiful love poem that lays bare the joy and complexity of family life. In this collection, Hasan continues to be a genius of confessional forms that breathe, sing, and cry.”
—Jordan Scott, author of Night & Ox
Upcoming Events with Hasan Namir
Word Vancouver presents a reading and talk with
LGBTQ2S+ Guest Curator Hasan Namir
and Indigenous Guest Curator Molly Cross-Blanchard.
Hosted by Betsy Warland.
Friday, September 17, 2021
7 – 8 pm PST
Online. Reserve tickets here.
Victoria Festival of Authors presents Birth, Death, The Restlessness In Between, featuring:
Hasan Namir
Andrea Actis
Jen Sookfong Lee
Co-curated by Planet Earth Poetry
Moderated by John Barton|
October 1, 2021
7:30 pm PST
Metro Theatre
1411 Quadra Street, Victoria, BC
Livestream option also available.
More information here.
Tickets available via Eventbrite here.
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That’s all for now, dear reader. Please join us again in wishing a very Happy Book Birthday to Hasan Namir. Umbilical Cord is available to purchase from our online shop or from your local independent bookstore today. Happy reading!
