Winner of the 2023 CAAPP Book Prize from the University of Pittsburgh's Center for African American Poetry and Poetics and Autumn House Press,Okwudili Nebeolisa's debut poetry collection exploresa son's relationship with his mother through her battle with cancer and his move from his homeland of Nigeria to the United States.
Nebeolisa's poems highlight how the poet and his family shoulder the responsibility of caregiving together and how Nebeolisa works to bridge the physical, and at times, emotional, distance between them. He wonders: ""I don't understand / her smile or why she would be submerged / in pain and wouldn't want to admit it. / Who did this to our mothers?"" The book questions his Nigerian mother's need to act brave and a son's need to protect.
Terminal Maladies reminds us that grief is inevitable, yet unique to each of us, and serves as a tribute to Nebeolisa's mother and is a necessary read for anyone who has faced the challenges of caring for a loved one.
By:
Okwudili Nebeolisa
Imprint: Autumn House Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 8mm
Weight: 141g
ISBN: 9781637680940
ISBN 10: 1637680945
Pages: 80
Publication Date: 03 January 2025
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: No Longer Our Product
EVENTUALLY PHANTOM HAIR MY FATHER’S CLOTHES ALL THE WRONG THINGS KITCHEN SCENE BREAKING MELON SEEDS WITH MY MOTHER TAKING STOCK SOLO JOURNEY TO GOD SITTING MONOLOGUE I COULD STILL HEAR HIM WHISTLING NOT SO SURE THE JOKE METASTASIS NOMENCLATURE OF MY MOTHER’S PAIN THINGS MY MOTHER’S CHILDREN DID FOR HER OPEN WINDOWS BACKYARD, MORNING TELEPHONE CONVERSATION THE PHOTOGRAPH MY OWN ASH MEMO TITHE AFTER THE RADIOTHERAPY PERSUASION BECAUSE ETIQUETTE ESCAPING FACADE ORANGE RETROSPECTIVE THE BLEEDING STORY SURVIVAL FAITH, BUT NOT AS A METAPHOR LITANY OF REMEDIES SUBTLETIES SIMPLICITY SAVINGS DECOY SECRECY THE LAST THING ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Okwudili Nebeolisa was born in Kaduna, Nigeria. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop where he was a Provost Fellow and the winner of the Prairie Lights' John Leggett Prize for Fiction. His poetry has received support from the Elizabeth George Foundation and the Granum Foundation. Currently, he lives in Minneapolis and is pursuing an MFA in fiction at the University of Minnesota where he won the Gessell Award for Excellence in Poetry.
Reviews for Terminal Maladies
"“‘Because the growl of thunder was distant,’ the speaker notes in Terminal Maladies, ‘I completely ignored it.’ The mere mention of the far-off rumbling, however, means otherwise. This thunderous collection considers the space between attention and abstraction, between life and death. Which is another way to say love.” -- Nicole Sealey, author of ""The Ferguson Report: An Erasure"" “Nebeolisa’s debut, Terminal Maladies, introduces a poet so skillful and original that his book represents a vital moment in contemporary poetry. Centering around the loss of the poet’s mother, these poems match acute observation with abiding sympathy. Masterful with formal as well as free verse, Nebeolisa moves beyond mere technique: his lines and sentences render the people he portrays with agile care. They also reveal, with often disarming immediacy, a writer capable of remaining in uncertainty and still determined to face unanticipated, often painful truths. Unsparing and yet infinitely tender, these are major poems. They will be with us for a long time to come.” -- Peter Campion, author of ""One Summer Evening at the Falls"""
