Umbilical Cord

Overview

Lambda Literary and Stonewall Book Award-winner Hasan Namir shares a joyful collection about parenting, fatherhood, and hope

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

Lambda Literary and Stonewall Book Award-winner Hasan Namir shares a joyful collection about parenting, fatherhood and hope. These warm free-verse poems document the journey that he and his husband took to have a child. Between love letters to their young son, 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.

Reviews

"This collection is a heartfelt tribute to love in its many forms. It reflects the author's courage, even in the face of death threats and insults, in celebrating his loving, chosen family. And that courage must flourish in a world that is still far from accepting same-sex marriages like Hasan and Tarn's." —Vancouver Sun

Author Biography

HASAN NAMIR is an Iraqi-Canadian author. He graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BA in English and received the Ying Chen Creative Writing Student Award. He is the author of the poetry books Umbilical Cord and War/Torn, which received the 2020 Barbara Gittings Honor Book Award from the Stonewall Book Awards. He is also the author of God in Pink, which won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Fiction and was chosen as one of the Top 100 Books of 2015 by The Globe and Mail, and two children’s books. Hasan lives in Vancouver with his husband and child.