HASAN NAMIR

Author Website

 

I would like to acknowledge the shared, unceded traditional territory of the Katzie,
Semiahmoo, Kwantlen and other Coast Salish Nations on which I work, play and learn. 

Award winning Author

Hasan Namir

 

Iraqi-Canadian author Hasan Namir graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BA in English and received the Ying Chen Creative Writing Student Award. He is the author of God in Pink (2015), which won the Lambda Literary Award and was chosen as one of the Top 100 Books of 2015 by The Globe and Mail. His work has also been featured on Huffington Post, Shaw TV, Airbnb, in the film God in Pink: A Documentary, Breakfast Television Toronto, CTV Morning Live Saskatoon. He was recently named a writer to watch by CBC books. He is also the author of poetry book War/Torn (2019, Book*Hug Press), children’s book The Name I Call Myself (2020, Arsenal Pulp Press), Umbilical Cord (Book*Hug Press) and Banana Dream (2023, Neal Porter Books). Hasan was the 2021 LGBTQ2s+ guest curator for Word Vancouver. He lives on the unceded territories of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo and Tsawwassen First Nations. with his family.

 

 Representation: Westwood Creative Artists

Agent  – Hilary McMahon (she/her)

Banana Dream

Picture Book

 

A young boy in Iraq yearns to taste the bananas that have been made unavailable by warfare.

Banana Dream is inspired by Hasan’s own childhood in Iraq, where bananas (among other things) were not available due to war. In North America, they are plentiful and inexpensive, but in this story, they represent something longed for but unattainable. With simple prose, Hasan addresses the relatable issue of a child coming to terms with his name against a unique story of scarcity and want. An author’s note provides some helpful context about the feel of this particular time and place.

This picture book explores a unique perspective on a fruit that’s often overlooked in North America, giving readers insight which sheds light on a place and time with which they might not otherwise be familiar.

 

Available now!

Umbilical Cord

Book of Poetry

 

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.

By Hasan Namir

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CATHRYN JOHN

The Name I Call Myself

Children’s Book

Selected as one of the best Canadian picture books of 2020 by CBC, The Name I Call Myself depicts Ari’s gender journey from childhood to adolescence in order to discover who they really are.

Throughout this beautiful and engaging picture book, we watch Ari grow up before our very eyes as they navigate the ins and outs of their gender identity.

Moving from age six to adolescence, The Name I Call Myself touchingly depicts Edward’s tender, solitary gender journey to Ari: a new life distinguished and made meaningful by self-acceptance and unconditional love.

Find this at your local independent bookstore or visit one of these links:

 

By Hasan Namir

War/Torn

Book of Poetry

Lambda Literary Award-winner and best Canadian Poetry Book Hasan Namir’s debut collection of poetry, War / Torn, is a brazen and lyrical interrogation of religion and masculinity—the performance and sense of belonging they delineate and draw together. Namir summons prayer, violence, and the sensuality of love, revisiting tenets of Islam and dictates of war to break the barriers between the profane and the sacred.

Find this at your local independent bookstore or visit one of the links below: 

By Hasan Namir

God in Pink

Fiction

The debut book by Hasan Namir is a revelatory novel about being queer and Muslim, set in war-torn Iraq in 2003. Ramy is a closeted university student whose parents have died, and who lives under the close scrutiny of his strict brother and sister-in-law. They exert pressure on him to find a wife, leaving him anguished and struggling to find a balance between his sexuality, religion, and culture. Desperate for counsel, he seeks the advice of Ammar, a sheikh at a local mosque, whose tolerance is challenged by the contradictions between Ramy’s dilemma and the teachings of the Qur’an, leading him to question his own belief system.

Find this at your local independent bookstore, or visit one of the links below:

 

Reviews

War/Torn

“War / Torn mourns, loves and burns all the derogatory impulses of our continuous present. This book is of and against our time. War / Torn is a breathless elegy in the most defiantly tender poetics you can imagine”

– Jordan Scott, Author of Night & Ox, and Winner of the Latner Poetry Prize by the Writer’s Trust of Canada

The Name I Call Myself

“What makes this work particularly impressive is how many of the concerns Ari faces are issues children encounter regardless of their gender identities. While Ari will particularly resonate with queer kids, their fears and secret joys are sure to speak volumes to any outsider or someone in need of a friend.”

-Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

God in Pink

“This book should be on everyone’s shelf — religious and non-religious alike. It is a raw, passionate, gritty tale of not only these two men who chose different paths, and are still making choices, but also of the many people around them who make their own life decisions to love, hate, accept, kill, tolerate or repel them.” 

-Philadelphia Gay News

Banana Dream

“What’s in a name? Plenty, as this clever and poignant tale makes clear.

—Starred Kirkus Review

Umbilical Cord

Umbilical Cord’s poems have a lucent quality and a supple rhythm that carries their tenderness to a reader. In an instant, the poems can become as raw, as immediate as touch. This work begins in heat and heartbeat, as a relationship and a family come into being, and it reflects the intimacies, anxieties, and devotions of love.  At once personally revealing and focused outward on the challenges that queer families face, in Umbilical Cord love triumphs over intolerance, and the future, named “Malek,” is nurtured by two devoted fathers.” 

—Kaie Kellough, author of Dominoes at the Crossroads and Magnetic Equator

EXPLODING THE ILLOGIC: HASAN NAMIR'S UMBILICAL CORD

“Describing his journey as a gay man to parenthood via a surrogate who shares his spouse’s genetics, Namir is able to explode an annoying vestige of the illogic upon which the straight mainstream, with teary-eyed desperation, sometimes still tries to assert its exclusivity.”

– ​John Barton, Gertrude Press

Book Review: Umbilical Cord

Umbilical Cord is a compilation of poems by Hasan Namir centring on deeply personal topics, including his homosexuality and fatherhood. Through his words, Namir delves into the profound emotions driven by surrogacy, parenthood, homophobia, and heteronormativity. He writes about his romantic relationship with his husband and his experiences of being an expectant parent (but not the gestational carrier) during pregnancy. He includes memories that tugged on his heartstrings in the early stages of raising a child, and the wishes and words of love he has for his new son. Umbilical Cord leaves readers emotionally charged and passionate about Namir’s hardships and triumphs.”

– ​Carly Smith, Cloud Lake Literary

Media Appearances

2024/2025

2024/2025 Chocolate Lily Awards Shortlist

Picture Book Nominee: Banana Dream by Hasan Namir, illustrated by Daby Zainab Faidhi (Neal Porter Books)

 

SEP 20 2022

PERSONAL ESSAY: An epic love story between an Iraqi Arab and a Punjabi Sikh

“All I wanted was to make my family happy, until I found what made me happy”

Xtra Magazine/Pink Triangle Press

JAN 14 2022

The Vancouver Sun: Vancouver poet Hasan Namir celebrates love, joys of same-sex parenthood

Emotional axis of Hasan Namir’s book links his joyous bond with his son and painful, profound bond with his baffled, somewhat homophobic father.

Tom Sandborn

DEC 14 2021

CBC Books: The best Canadian poetry of 2021

Umbilical Cord is a collection of joyous free-verse poems that chronicle Hasan Namir’s journey to fatherhood. The book is brimming with hope and love, as Namir writes love letters to his new son, recounts how he and his husband fell in love and documents the complicated process of IVF and surrogacy.

Hasan Namir

DEC 2 2021

q with Tom Power
Hasan Namir on Umbilical Cord and the importance of queer family literature

Award-winning Canadian author and poet Hasan Namir joined Tom Power to discuss his new poetry book, Umbilical Cord, inspired by his first year of parenthood.

Hasan Namir

nov 22 2021

The Chat with Hasan Namir

Poet Hasan Namir has produced a moving and complex portrait of fatherhood in his latest work, the poetry collection Umbilical Cord (Book*hug). Today he joins us on The Chat.

Hasan Namir

nov 5 2021

Writers Festival

Danny Ramadan hosts this conversation on poetry, parenthood and hope with Lambda Literary and Stonewall Award-winner Hasan Namir and his book of poetry, Umbilical Cord.

Hasan Namir

july 9 2021

Bookhug Press• Toronto, ON

Umbilical Cord Promo Video!

Hasan Namir

CTV Saskatoon • Saskatoon, SK

The Name I Call Myself

Hasan Namir & Cathryn John

Events

November 2023

Family Holiday Book Pop-Up & Reading

Childrens, middle-reader, and YA fiction and non-fiction with authors Tanya Boteju, Jillian Christmas, Tony Correia, Hasan Namir, Emily Pohl-Weary, Holman Wang and Andrea Warner. Join Hasan Namir as one of the authors on Nov 25 @ 1PM

MAy 2023

Surrey Muse Program

Surrey Muse is an inclusive space initiated by writers, performers and artists who want to excel in our art, who strive to create supportive platforms for ourselves and our peers, and who wish to bring together through art and literature Surrey’s diverse communities. Join Hasan Namir as author on May 27.

MAR 2023

Languagelessness: The Joy of Reconciling Between Languages and Form in Poetry

With Languageless: The Joy of Reconciling Between Languages and Form in Poetry workshop, I invite aspiring poets to join me on this writing journey to find ways to reconcile between languages and experiment with words and form and how the writing process will bring joy.  I will share my experience writing poems in more than one language and I will be using poetry examples from my book. There will be a lot of opportunities to write poems and experiment with languages. I look forward to working with you on this interactive workshop. Writing poetry can be the most joyful experience, Mar. 4.

Connect with Hasan Namir

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