26-year-old poet, recording artist, and spoken word performer Kate Tempest has been awarded the 2012 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry.
The award was given for her piece, Brand New Ancients, which is an hour-long spoken word story, told alongside a live orchestral score. The piece follows the story of two London families, and uses ideas from ancient mythology to explore themes of consumerism and urban poverty.
Ted Hughes 2012 Award judges Maura Dooley, Ian Duhig and Cornelia Parker chose Tempest’s piece from a shortlist of seven poetry works, aiming to find the most exciting and innovative poetic creation in the UK for the year 2012.
‘Our brief was to find the most exciting contribution to poetry this year. We judges were unanimous in feeling that Kate Tempest fulfilled this with knobs on!’ the judges said in their announcement of Tempest’s win.
‘Kate Tempest has created here an ambitious, unforgettable mythology and made us look at the world afresh. Kate’s work is full of promise for the future of poetry.’
The six other finalists were Collete Bryce, Roy Fisher, Ruth Padel, Mario Petrucci, Denise Riley, and Tamar Yoseloff.
The award was presented by UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, who funds the £5,000 poetry prize using her annual Laureate honorarium from Queen Elizabeth II. This is the fourth year since the inception of the annual Ted Hughes Award, with Tempest joining a list of winners including Lavinia Greenlaw and Kaite O’Reilly.
Tempest produced Brand New Ancients in partnership with Battersea Arts Centre, and collaborated with Nell Catchpole, and performers Kwake Bass, Raven Bush, Natasha Zielazinski and Jo Gibson.
After receiving the Ted Hughes Award, Tempest received a barrage of encouragement and praise, tweeting that she was ‘genuinely blown away by all the support and congratulations’.
Previously, Tempest has twice won the prestigious slam event held at the Nu-Yorican poetry cafe in New York and has received the Ambassador of Conscience award in Dublin for her work with schools, youth groups and Amnesty International.
Tempest is currently working on a novel, and will be speaking at the Sydney Writers festival from 24-26 May 2013.
At the festival she will be appearing at Mouth to Mic, Kate Tempest and Anis Mojgani, Worlds Collide and at the Festival Club’s Friday night Spoken Four event.
For more information about Kate Tempest’s appearances at the Sydney Writer’s Festival, visit the Sydney Writer’s Festival Website.
