| Always Becominging | |
| Birth Date: | [1] |
| Birth Place: | New Zealand |
| Occupation: | Poet |
| Other Names: |
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| Awards: | MitoQ Best First Book Awards: Jessie Mackay Prize for Poetry |
Always Becominging (formerly Jay Nieuwland;[2] born 1990) is a New Zealand poet, editor and co-founder of the publishing house We Are Babies. Her 2021 publication I Am a Human Being won the best first book award (poetry) at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
Becominging was born and raised in Wellington.[3] She first seriously began writing poetry in high school, after developing a passion for New Zealand hip hop artists such as Frontline and the Breakin Wreckwordz hip-hop collective, eventually realising that she was drawn to the process of writing, instead of hip-hop performance.[4] Becominging studied creative writing at Whitireia New Zealand.[4]
Together with American poet Carolyn DeCarlo, Becominging co-founded the independent publishing house We Are Babies.[4] Becominging and DeCarlo worked on a number of projects, including the eBook Twilight Zone (2013)[5] and Bound: an Ode to Falling in Love (2014), a fictionalised chapbook telling the story of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's relationship.[6] In 2015, We Are Babies released the poetry anthology Left: a Book of Words and Pictures, which featured Becominging as the work's editor.[3] [7] Becominging and DeCarlo also founded the zine/poetry reading collective Food Court, which eventually expanded to become a physical store in Newtown, Wellington.[4] The store shut down in 2022.[8]
In the early 2010s, Becominging began writing the poetry collection I Am a Human Being. Halfway through the writing process, Becominging realised that she was genderqueer.[9] I Am a Human Being was eventually published by Compound Press in 2020,[10] winning the MitoQ Best First Book Award for Poetry at the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards,[11] [12] and was longlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry.[13] A review in Landfall described it as "a unified artwork and a collection of lyrical bangers", and said the book was "probably the funniest book of poetry published in Aotearoa this year".[14]
As of 2022, Becominging is completing a PhD in poetics.[15]
Becominging previously identified as genderqueer.[16] In 2021, Becominging came out as a trans woman, and started using she/her pronouns.[17] [18]
Becominging met Carolyn DeCarlo online in 2011, on the literary website HTMLGIANT. After the pair developed a long-distance relationship, DeCarlo moved to New Zealand from Maryland.[4] Becominging and DeCarlo separated in 2022.[19]