Hold Your Own - by Kae Tempest (Paperback)

About the Book

From playwright, novelist, spoken-word star, and the youngest-ever winner of the Ted Hughes Award, an electrifying poem-sequence based on the myth of the gender-switching prophet Tiresias.

Book Synopsis

From playwright, novelist, spoken-word star, and the youngest-ever winner of the Ted Hughes Award, an electrifying poem-sequence based on the myth of the gender-switching prophet Tiresias.

My heart throws its head against my ribs, / it's denting every bone it's venting something it has known since I arrived and felt it beat.

Walking in the forest one morning, a young man disturbs two copulating snakes--and is punished by the goddess Hera, who turns him into a woman. So begins Hold Your Own, a riveting tale of youth and experience, wealth and poverty, sex and love, that draws ancient figures into a fiercely contemporary vision.

Weaving elements of classical myth, autobiography and social commentary, Tempest uses the story of the blind, clairvoyant Tiresias to create four sequences of poems, addressing childhood, manhood, womanhood, and late life. The result is a rhythmically hypnotic tour de force--and a hugely ambitious leap forward for one of the most broadly talented and compelling young writers today.

Review Quotes

"At the heart of Kae Tempest's latest work is a captivating dichotomy . . . [They are] beyond modern [and] firmly classical . . . These are acute and insightful poems that lodge in the ear and sear themselves on the vision." --The Guardian

"A story so vivid it's as if you had a state-of-the-art Blu-ray player stuffed into your brain." --Charles Isherwood, New York Times, on BRAND NEW ANCIENTS

"A game-changer. Tempest has forged [their] own voice, unlike anything else in the mainstream poetry world." --Independent

About the Author

Kae Tempest is a poet. They are also a writer, a lyricist, a performer and a recording artist. They have published plays, poems, a novel, a book length non-fiction essay, released albums and toured extensively, selling out shows from Reykjavik to Rio de Janeiro. They received Mercury Music Prize nominations for both of the albums Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos and two Ivor Novello nominations for their song-writing on The Book of Traps and Lessons. They were named a Next Generation Poet in 2014, a once in a decade accolade. They received the Ted Hughes Award for their longform narrative poem Brand New Ancients and the Leone D'Argento at the Venice Teatro Biennale for their work as a playwright. Their books have been translated into eleven languages and published to critical acclaim around the world. They were born in London in 1985 where they still live. They hope to continue putting words together for a long time.