j/j hastain

I thank you for everything, each layer, until the millionth egg

in the opera that xe began writing (after reflecting for many weeks on Griffin and Sabine), xe was devising a depiction. a strange portrait. having had its mouth surgically closed up because it was a threat to the patriarchy, the Character in the portrait had literally had pieces of metal soldered over its maw. regardless of the fact that the Character could not physically use its voice anymore because its maw had been trapped, it trained itself to psychically use its voice. xe debated with xemself about how to portray that complexity. “yes,” xe thought. “it would have to have a mental voice.”

the image that xe decided upon (in order to most accurately render the strange portrait and its complex voice into something visible), was that of a oscillating-ly dark and luminous egg.

how many sides does an egg have? xe wondered. but, it was not until xe began to consider whether or not the egg is filled or empty that xe spoke: “one if it’s filled in, two if it’s hollow.” xe was aware that with that statement xe was at middle of a not yet known question.

j/j hastain lives in Colorado, USA with xir beloved. j/j is the author of numerous cross-genre works previously published and forthcoming (a few of which are): prurient anarchic omnibus (Spuyten Duyvil), long past the presence of common (Say it with Stones), a womb- shaped wormhole (BlazeVox), treOOA(with Eileen Tabios/ Marsh Hawk Press). j/j’s writing has appeared in numerous journals including Trickhouse, Vlak, Big Bridge, The Offending Adam, Dear Sir, Eccolinguistics, Housfire, EOAGH, Aufgabe, Queerocracy Art, Masculine Femininities, Caketrain, Plath Profiles, Bombay Gin. j/j is currently in the process of curating an Anthology of Queer Nudes (Knives Spoons and Forks Press, 2013) and has helped curate (and participated in) two major Trans anthologies. j/j is an Elective Affinities participant, a member of Dusie kollektiv, writes for Lit Pub and is a regular contributor to Sous Les Paves. j/ j currently writes creative reviews for Big Other, Jacket2, Horse Less Press, PANK and Emprise Review. j/j’s work has was appeared in a Queer-focused show at the Leslie-Lohman Annex in New York. j/j’s books have been finalists in the Kelsey Street, Grey Book Press, Grace Notes Books, Switchback, Omnidawn, DIAGRAM and Ahsahta book and essay competitions. j/j’s work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Publishers Triangle. j/j’s manuscript extant shamanisms won the Pavement Saw poetry award. j/j’s manuscript dear secondary umbilical, won second place in the Mad Hatter’s Wild and Wyrd Poetry Contest. In 2011 j/j’s book we in my Trans was nominated for the Stonewall Book Award and j/j’s book prurient anarchic omnibus was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.