Them! by Harry Josephine Giles is a challenging and subversive collection of poems about trans life as it is lived today, through the lenses of work, technology and ecology. Witty, candid, furious, and always compelling, Them! negotiates the fraught and fruitful space between the worlds of ‘online’ and the ‘outside’, and how they fuse and diverge in the imagination. Giles’ visual poetics create an unusually dynamic reading experience as she finds new ways ‘to sing, shout and strike in the cracks of what’s possible’. At a time when trans rights are to the fore in public discourse, Them! is a zestful poetic intervention from one of this generation’s most necessary poets.
Review
With wit and strange beauty . . . Giles celebrates an explosive efflorescence of forms, from prose poetry and erasures to dazzling visual poems, songs, photo-poems, a hilarious flow chart concerning gender reassignment protocol, and minimalist nature poems . . . A bold and inimitable tour de force -- Philip Terry - Guardian
Skilful and seditious poems . . . furious in [their] humanity and exceptional range of expression - Poetry Book Society
A complex collection – inventive, spiky and in possession of fiery energy -- Vona Groarke - Irish Times
About the Author
Harry Josephine Giles is a writer and performer from Orkney. She holds an MA in Theatre Directing from East 15 Acting School and a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Stirling. Her verse novel Deep Wheel Orcadia was published by Picador in October 2021 and received the 2022 Arthur C. C
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