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    Hold Your Own
    Hold Your Own
    Hold Your Own
    Ebook113 pages1 hour

    Hold Your Own

    By Kae Tempest

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    About this ebook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury USA
    Release dateMar 10, 2015
    ISBN9781632862068
    Hold Your Own
    Author

    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.

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    4/5

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    • 5/5
      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.

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    Hold Your Own - Kae Tempest

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