'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.
