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]

• DeCarlo, Carolyn; Nieuwland, Jackson (2014). Bound: an Ode to Falling in Love. Auckland: Compound Press. ISBN 9780994112323. OCLC 1003123254.
• Nieuwland, Jackson, ed. (2015). Left: a Book of Words and Pictures. Wellington: Compound Press. ISBN 9780473316518. OCLC 934111390.
• Nieuwland, Jackson (2020). I Am a Human Being. Auckland: Compound Press. ISBN 9780995125148. OCLC 1241570294.