Tayi Tibble’s Poūkahangatus Reviewed in New Yorker

Wellington poet Tayi Tibble’s award-winning first collection Poūkahangatus has been described by The New Yorker magazine as “smart, sexy … fanciful and dramatic”.

“This collection’s title poem, which describes itself as ‘An Essay About Indigenous Hair Dos and Don’ts’, mixes mythological and pop-cultural references with ruminations on female beauty, power, and inheritance: Medusa makes an appearance, as does Disney’s ‘Pocahontas’,” the magazine writes.

“Tibble’s smart, sexy, slang-studded verse is fanciful and dramatic, revelling in the pains and the pleasures of contemporary young womanhood yet undergirded by an acute sense of history. Her voice remains sure-footed across many registers, and the book, at its best, functions as an atlas for learning to explore the world on one’s own terms.”

Poūkahangatus, which was published in 2018, received the Jessie Mackay Prize for Poetry at the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Tibble was born in 1995 and grew up in Porirua.

Original article by The New Yorker, September 26, 2022.