Released 25th November 2025
Edition of 200 copies.
ISBN: 978-1-0369-6283-8
“Any map of heartbreak can only be a version or representation of the territory, but this almost impossible task is also the soul of what poetry is. In Him Hymn we find a sensibility, an imagination, a voice, as real as any other world, urgently leveraging a dazzling spectrum of approaches to see what works, to see what breaks things open or describes them with the necessary emotional, cartographic accuracy. In Stein-like linguistic intensity Challenger gives us one of the most true maps I can imagine.” (Luke Kennard)
“Tamsyn Challenger’s Him Hymn is a striking debut – bold, intimate, and full of unexpected turns. Her poems move between tenderness and tension, exploring the body, art, and desire with sharp intelligence and dark humour. Challenger dismantles power and pleasure, turning language into both weapon and salve. The collection speaks to love’s violence and art’s necessity.” (Peter Gizzi)
“Him Hymn gives shape to the anger and obsession that come with impossible love. These poems are confronting, gorgeous and wild. When you read them, you’ll hear songs. Tamsyn Challenger knows exactly to which rhythm a broken heart beats.” (Nadia de Vries)
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Tamsyn Challenger is a multi-disciplinary artist. Her visual work has explored wide-ranging sociopolitical themes, including gender violence and precursor work on selfie culture, and has featured in the Guardian Newspaper’s Top 5 Exhibitions list twice. She’s produced radio for the BBC, including ‘My Male Muse’ which became a BBC radio 4 Pick of the Year in 2007. In 2017, she was asked to deliver the David Vilaseca Memorial Lecture at Royal Holloway University. Subsequently, she joined the Advisory Committee for the Centre of Visual Cultures at RHUL. Since 2024, her poetry has been published in Anthropocene Poetry, Osmosis Press, The AI Literary Review, Skirting Around, Permeable Barrier and Pamenar Magazine. She gave her first poetry reading at Glasgow University for the creative writing department’s ‘Bulb’ series in Aug’ 2024.Her poem film, ‘Fret’ was a Women in Word literary fest official poetry film selection 2024. ‘Fret’ has subsequently been published by Ink, Sweat, and Tears. Since then, films she’s made from her poems ‘Very Bye’ and ‘White Cube’ have been officially selected for the StAnza Poetry Festival, 2025, and for the exhibition ‘Between a Frame and a Soft Place’ at the Millennium Film Workshop, NYC. Him Hymn is Tamsyn’s first book of poetry.
OSMOSIS PRESS 