dear secondary umbilical, by j/j hastain, is the Second Place winner of the MadHat Press 2011 Wild and Wyrd Poetry Chapbook Contest!

j/j hastain was manumit from the human womb by way of caesarean birth (a violent release only after extreme pressure); raised Mormon. Later, j/j picked all of the lemons that j/j could reach from where j/j hid on the inside of the lemon tree as a child (learning then about decay due to placing the lemons so close together that over time they began to mold from touching). j/j left home and Mormonism to move into the bush in Australia (with Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory). Following a slant of light (which presented itself particled as well as dense) to the Rocky Mountains, j/j found the physical form of xir, most beloved.

Identifiying as Trans/ post-binary genderqueer (which is different than Transgender, though not discounting it, at all) j/j is interested in differentiated usages with regard to the prefix Trans (not related to a previously determined model with binary derived bases). Merriam Webster defines transoceanic as “crossing or extending across the ocean” and translucent as “transmitting and diffusing light so that objects beyond cannot be seen clearly.” Both definitions are akin to j/j’s Trans/ genderqueer identity. To develop and nourish compositional methods which increase empowerment in what a diminutive and polarizing world, j/j creates spaces/ forms inherently non-linear, inherently a-historical—spaces that have never been patriarchally controlled, whichcannot be patriarchally controlled.

Singing is an embodiment site of enablement for j/j, who, currently, torches tunes with the jazz/ blues bandthunderhoney (based in Denver, Colorado.

C.A. Conrad, the judge of the MadHat Press 2011 Wild and Wyrd Poetry Chapbook Contest and author of Deviant Propulsion, said of j/j's work:

“There is no doubt j/j hastain is making our new poetry of oracle.  Poetry I want, poetry you want, poetry very much wanted.  It’s not poetry about everything being all right.  It’s better for you than any liar’s subterfuge.  How else will we get the love?  It’s beautiful in here.  This is a book I will give to the ones I share the best parts of this world with.”

dear secondary umbilical,
by j/j hastain
$7.95, paperback, 40pp
ISBN-13:  978-0-9885490-2-9

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