Sugared Words: Jawn Van Jacobs Debuts His Chapbook, Bastard Bee

Jawn Van Jacob turns nature into prose in his new book, Bastard Bee, available now.

A prolific writer from South Jersey, Jacobs’ poetic contributions include Juniper Zine, ribs mag, and Gnashing Teeth Publishing among others. He has an extensive array of published individual poems, and now with his new chapbook, Jacobs has made his first foray into the compiled poetry world.

Inspired by Emily Dickinson’s use of bees, Jacobs divides the bastard bee into two elements: the bastard, which Jacobs connotes as “speak[ing] to society’s outsiders and rebels, the ones who live against the grain,” and the bee, which “represents the working-class people, those of us who keep things afloat in a world that often feels hopeless.”

Jacobs uses measured pacing and terminology to explore society’s outcasts, illuminating a world that goes unnoticed. Like a bee that keeps plants pollinated and the world turning, the working-class buzzes on and completes unappreciated labor. But through bastard bee, Jacobs points to a new possibility: finding sweetness in a world that won’t give it so easily. This is especially true for queer people, for whom rejection is constant and may not quite fit into society’s expectations.

Engaging with Jacobs’ work may also draw you into his own nature-loving perspective. According to Jacobs himself, “to be a bastard bee is to be that outlaw, that freak, that person people don’t always want to see…Nature has always been a mirror for that energy – it adapts, it rebels, it survives.”

That same instinct to adapt and evolve shaped Jacobs’ work, which developed over the course of a decade. He began writing his chapbook in high school, extending all the way to his present as a high school teacher. Though some of his poetry may resonate more with his younger self, he still connects to his favorite poem, “alpha.” In it, he traverses an early childhood moment with his father, where the two “found a swallowtail butterfly that had just emerged from its cocoon but couldn’t quite get its wings to dry. He placed it on the truck bed, and we just sat together, waiting for it to be ready to fly.”

See Jawn Van Jacobs’ work on his website, jawnvanjacobs.com, or through his publisher, Finishing Line Press.