Hold Your Own

By Kae Tempest

Hold Your Own, Kae Tempest's first full-length collection for Picador is an ambitious, multi-voiced work based around the mythical figure of Tiresias. This four-part work follows him through his transformations from child, man and woman to blind prophet; through this structure, Tempest holds up a mirror to contemporary life in a direct and provocative way rarely associated with poetry.

A vastly popular and accomplished performance poet, Tempest commands a huge and dedicated following on the performance and rap circuit. Brand New Ancients, also available from Picador, won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry and has played to packed concert halls on both sides of the Atlantic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Oct 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781447241225

Kae Tempest

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 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 long-form 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.

Reviews for Hold Your Own

[lydia1879 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a fantastic read. I read it in about two sittings.

It's based on ancient myth, but you don't need to know the myth to enjoy the poems. (Although I'd like to go and check out a few translations and definitely read this book again.)

Tempest touches on so many themes, sexuality, loneliness, belonging, modern life, love, gender, feminism, war, and all with such simple, emotional prose. I had such a visceral reaction reading her work and I loved every minute of it. It's so easy to read and so sensual and so melancholy. So much of her British background is evident in what she writes, but I think it adds to the atmosphere.

What I really appreciated is she was able to split the book up into four different sections, and while each section stood on its own, the book also carried a single narrative thread to tie everything together.

Don't like poetry? Guess what, I don't care, I think you should read this.

I'm off to go check out some of her musical and spoken poetry work now.