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Hasan Namir

Hasan Namir was born in Iraq. He has lived in Canada most of his life and is currently residing in Vancouver. He holds a B.A. in English from Simon Fraser University.

Fiction

God in Pink

Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2015.
PS8627 .A536 G64 2015

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)

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.

Awards and Honours

2016 Lambda Literary Award–Gay Fiction (Winner)

Fiction (Juvenile, Picture book)

Banana Dream

Pictures by Daby Zainab Faidhi.
New York: Neal Porter Books, 2023.

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)

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

Growing up in Iraq after the Gulf War, Mooz didn’t always like his name, which means “banana”. But when he learns the story behind it, he’s proud, even when being teased by his classmates. Now all he yearns for is to taste a banana—a lofty dream in a time when few countries are trading with Iraq, where bananas don’t grow.

Fiction (Juvenile, Picture book)

The Name I Call Myself

Illustrated by Cathryn John.
Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020.

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)

Ma misses the sun, warmth and colors of their faraway homeland, but her daughter sees magic in everything — the clouds in the winter sky, the “firework” display when she throws an armful of snow into the air, making snow angels, tasting snowflakes. And in the end, her joy is contagious. Home is where family is, after all.

Meet Ari, a young person who doesn’t like to be called by their birth name Edward: “When I think of the name Edward, I imagine old kings who snore a lot. ” 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; we see how, as a child, they prefer dolls and princess movies, and want to grow out their hair, though their father insists on cutting it short, “because that’s what boys look like. ” At nine, they play hockey but wish they could try on their mother’s dresses; at fifteen, they shave their face, hoping to have smooth skin like the girls. At sixteen, they want to run away, especially from their father, who insists, “You’re a boy, so you have to act like one. ” Who will Ari become?

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.

Poetry

Umbilical Cord

Toronto: Book*hug, 2021.
PS8627.A536 U53 2021

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)

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.

Poetry

War / Torn

Toronto: Book*hug, 2019.
PS8627 .A536 W37 2019

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)

Ma misses the sun, warmth and colors of their faraway homeland, but her daughter sees magic in everything — the clouds in the winter sky, the “firework” display when she throws an armful of snow into the air, making snow angels, tasting snowflakes. And in the end, her joy is contagious. Home is where family is, after all.

Lambda Literary Award-winner 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.

Awards and Honours

2020 Stonewall Honor Books in Literature (American Library Association)

Links

Hasan Namir Facebook page

Publisher Arsenal Pulp Press

Publisher Book*hug

Publisher Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada