Kate Tempest, winner of the Ted Hughes Prize for Brand New Ancients and widely regarded as the UK’s leading spoken word poet, has produced a new poem-sequence of electrifying power. Based on the myth of the blind prophet Tiresias, Hold Your Own is a riveting tale of youth and experience, sex and love, wealth and poverty, community and alienation. 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. This is only the beginning of his journey . . . Weaving elements of classical myth, autobiography and social commentary, Tempest uses the story of the gender-switching, clairvoyant Tiresias to create four sequences of poems: ‚childhood‘, ‚manhood‘, ‚womanhood‘ and ‚blind profit‘. The result is a rhythmically hypnotic tour de force – and a hugely ambitious leap forward for one of the UK’s most talented and compelling young writers. An audio download of Tempest’s spellbinding performance of Hold Your Own is also available.
ISBN: 978-1-4472-4121-8
