Limbo, by Duna Haller

Poetry, chapbook, 36 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Limbo is a collection of poems written between 2015 and 2021, a period which included various hospital internments and the crystallization of a lot of emotional and personal processing. Transition and living as a non binary & sapphic trans woman, insomnia and emotional trauma, polyamory and overcoming closets and shame in attraction, as well as processing some of the things that have kept me up at night since I was a child. The thread goes from the most personal intimate memories to some of the history I have in common with other LGBTQ+ artists and creators. Memories of the Spanish Civil War and what the fascist regime after it meant for a lot of people like me mix up with grief for my greatgrandfather who died when I was 8. The double-edged sword of learning tools to survive patriarchy mixes up with the memories of chatting with a friend and discovering we both were, in fact, queer all along.

The book also deals with my dissociative disorder and some of the childhood trauma that caused it, giving a voice to my alters. Limbo is, in a lot of ways, this non-place, sleepless nights environment where everything is quiet and you have no idea where you are; this state of myself where my traumas get to freely express, untangle, whisper, ask for, and in that sense I owe the existence of this book to my capacity of surviving trauma through the gift of dissociation. While topics like bullying, self-harm, illness or rape loom over these poems, the takeaway from a lot of it points towards survivorhood from these experiences and embracing love in an abundant, purposedly uncloseted way (chosen family, romantic, platonic, fleeing, long time, long distance or long embraces). Healing is an unfinished process, and dancing might as well be part of it.

Duna Haller is a poet, writer, musician and collagist from Madrid, Spain. Limbo is her second poetry publication, after her debut Desierto (Reflector Libros, 2016). She has been published in multiple zines and anthologies, including ‘99% Chance of Magic: Stories of Strength and Hope for Transgender Kids’ by Heartspark Press, Menaces Zine and various Sapphic Writers zines. She combines her efforts into LGBT+ and mental health activism and survivorship with various forms of collaborative art, hoping art is a vehicle for shared struggle and LGBT+ healing. She's also a comic book nerd and journalist, routinely reviewing comics and interviewing creators as part of the Comic Watch team.