ABOUT THIS BOOK

Tender poetry chronicling a son’s relationship with his mother through her battle with cancer and his move from his homeland of Nigeria to the United States.

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 serves as an intimate exploration of the relationship between a Nigerian mother and son. Throughout the book, Nebeolisa navigates the guilt of starting a new life in the United States, far away from his home country and from his mother, who is battling cancer.

Depicting tender moments between mother and son, Terminal Maladies highlights how the poet and his family shoulder the responsibility of caregiving together and how Nebeolisa works to bridge the physical and emotional distance between them. He reflects on the reasons behind his Nigerian mother’s withholding, questioning her need to act bravely alongside his own assumed role as her protector.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Okwudili Nebeolisa was born in Kaduna, Nigeria, and currently lives in Iowa City. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop where he was a Provost Fellow and won the Prairie Lights John Leggetts Prize for Fiction. He has received support for his poetry from the Elizabeth George Foundation and the Granum Foundation. His poems have appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Cincinnati Review, Image, Salamander Magazine, Sewanee Review, and Threepenny Review, and his nonfiction has appeared in Catapult and Commonwealth Writers.

REVIEWS

“‘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"

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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