Poukahangatus

'Moving and hopeful ... will stay with me for a long time' Daisy Buchanan 
'A fearless, young new voice' Carol Ann Duffy 
'One of the most exciting debuts I've read in ages' Kaveh Akbar 
'One of the most startling and original poets of her generation' Joy Harjo 
 
The voice of Tayi Tibble is one of most exciting in poetry today. In Poukahangatus (pronounced 'Pocahontas'), her debut volume, Tibble challenges a dazzling array of mythologies - Greek, Maori, feminist, kiwi - peeling them apart and respinning them in modern terms. Her poems move from rhythmic discussions of the Kardashians, sugar daddies and Twilight to exquisite renderings of precise emotions and the natural world alike. Tibble is also a master narrator of teenage womanhood, its exhilarating highs and devastating lows; her high-camp aesthetics chart the overflowing beauty, irony and ruination of her surroundings. 
 
Poem by poem, Tibble carves out a bold new way of engaging history without merely telling it, of straddling modernity and ancestry, desire and exploitation. These are warm, provocative and profoundly original poems, written from a world in which the effects of colonization, land, work and gender are intimately and insidiously connected. Along the way, Tibble scrutinizes perception and asks how she as a Maori woman fits into trends, stereotypes and popular culture. With language that is at once colourful, passionate and laugh-out-loud funny, Poukahangatus announces the presence of a surpassingly daring new poet.

A fearless, young new voice with a huge range, from history to pop culture, with that sense of joy in its own word-music which immediately heralds the start of a poetic and political journey. Along with Hera Lindsay Bird, Tayi Tibble adds excitement to the new poetry coming from New Zealand

Startlingly evocative, lush, moving and hopeful - this is a powerful and thrilling new voice that will stay with me for a long time

Hurls us into a lush biome of sensual density ... one feels in the presence of a singular, searching mind rigorously excavating its own psychospiritual station. Poukahangatus is one of the most exciting debuts I've read in ages

Tayi Tibble is one of the most startling and original poets of her generation. Her poetry makes doorways of insight into turbulent history. At the end, there we are, all standing together, listening

Tayi Tibble's Poukahangatus was an incredibly rhythmic and refreshing read! Ripe with dazzling imagery, culture and history, this collection offers readers a tale of identity, cross-generational references and so much more. Tibble's rich language breathes new life into poetry and tethers readers to the history of the Maori people and the lasting impact of colonization. The writing screams, 'I was here before &amp; I'll be back again!' I'd suggest this book to every twenty-something trying to find their way!

I love your collection [Rangikura], it's so good, I'm so impressed ... You totally encapsulate the heady vibe of being a young woman in New Zealand

Tibble's luscious, widely praised debut poetry collection [channels] her Maori heritage and the zeitgeist of her childhood ... Tibble transforms tales of mundanity into spellbinding, melodious 
encounters. Boys embroiled in a rugby scrum become gritty and vicious ... A game of Cowboys and Indians is incidentally wounding but also depicted as a sharp indictment of the White Savior Complex ... Tibble's running prose poems bubble over with lush imagery and serve as canny time capsules ... Like the stylistic lovechild of Rupi Kaur and Teresia Teaiwa, Tibble is a poet of effervescent verve and great promise

This chatty, winsome debut by a young New Zealand poet mines family history, Maori myth and the residue of pop culture to fashion a striking sensibility

Tibble's affinity for poetry was literally written in the stars ... Tibble blends past and present, peppering her poems with pop culture references

Tayi Tibble (Te Whanau a Apanui / Ngati Porou) was born in 1995 and lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her first book, Poukahangatus, won the Jessie Mackay Best First Book of Poetry Award in 2019. Rangikura, her second, will be published for the first time in the UK and US in summer 2023.

The voice of Tayi Tibble is one of most exciting in poetry today. In Poukahangatus (pronounced 'Pocahontas'), her debut volume, Tibble challenges a dazzling array of mythologies - Greek, Maori, feminist, kiwi - peeling them apart and respinning them in modern terms. Her poems move from rhythmic discussions of the Kardashians, sugar daddies and Twilight to exquisite renderings of precise emotions and the natural world alike. Tibble is also a master narrator of teenage womanhood, its exhilarating highs and devastating lows; her high-camp aesthetics chart the overflowing beauty, irony and ruination of her surroundings. 
 
Poem by poem, Tibble carves out a bold new way of engaging history without merely telling it, of straddling modernity and ancestry, desire and exploitation. These are warm, provocative and profoundly original poems, written from a world in which the effects of colonization, land, work and gender are intimately and insidiously connected. Along the way, Tibble scrutinizes perception and asks how she as a Maori woman fits into trends, stereotypes and popular culture. With language that is at once colourful, passionate and laugh-out-loud funny, Poukahangatus announces the presence of a surpassingly daring new poet.

Tayi Tibble

'I love [it], it's so good, I'm so impressed . . . totally encapsulates the heady vibe of being a young woman in New Zealand'

It demonstrates the power of all paradigm-shifting books - which is to fold up previously knotty stumbling blocks like they are furniture left out in the rain, and then replace it with an enlarged space

Tibble speaks about beauty, activism, power and popular culture with compelling guile, a darkness, a deep understanding and sensuality

I am made in the image of my mother ... 
I am made in the image of / my mountain / my river / my whenua 
 
In Rangikura, plastic tiaras melt into boiling rivers, and family memories blur with ancestral mythologies. Satanic stepbrothers play jenga while the deity Mahuika burns - and the temperature is rising. Here, anger and loss, history and pop culture are spun into verses woven with vernacular and Te Reo Maori. At the collection's centre, our protagonist whirls through a love/hate story for the internet age, facing the sting of unanswered texts and unmet expectations with wit, sensibility and devastating glamour. 
 
Rangikura is the captivating second collection from award-winning poet Tayi Tibble. From feminism to colonialism, skuxes to daddies, wild swimming to schoolboy hakas, these poems at once mark the end of the world and the dawn of a new day. Poignant, hilarious and liberatory, Rangikura reminds us that the personal is sometimes political, the political is always personal, and poetry can be revolutionary.

Tayi Tibble

Praise for Rangikura

'I love [it], it's so good, I'm so impressed . . . totally encapsulates the heady vibe of being a young woman in New Zealand'

It demonstrates the power of all paradigm-shifting books - which is to fold up previously knotty stumbling blocks like they are furniture left out in the rain, and then replace it with an enlarged space

Tibble speaks about beauty, activism, power and popular culture with compelling guile, a darkness, a deep understanding and sensuality

'I love [it], it's so good, I'm so impressed . . . totally encapsulates the heady vibe of being a young woman in New Zealand'

It demonstrates the power of all paradigm-shifting books - which is to fold up previously knotty stumbling blocks like they are furniture left out in the rain, and then replace it with an enlarged space

Tibble speaks about beauty, activism, power and popular culture with compelling guile, a darkness, a deep understanding and sensuality

'I love [it], it's so good, I'm so impressed . . . totally encapsulates the heady vibe of being a young woman in New Zealand'

It demonstrates the power of all paradigm-shifting books - which is to fold up previously knotty stumbling blocks like they are furniture left out in the rain, and then replace it with an enlarged space

Tibble speaks about beauty, activism, power and popular culture with compelling guile, a darkness, a deep understanding and sensuality

Books by Tayi Tibble

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