Nigerian poet Michael Imossan has revealed the cover of his full-length poetry collection, All That Refuses to Die, which will be released by the University of Nebraska Press on March 1, 2026. The collection earned him the 2024 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poetry.
Imossan’s manuscript was selected from hundreds of entries by a judging panel that included writers Chris Abani, Gabeba Baderoon, Aracelis Girmay, John Keene, Matthew Shenoda, Mahtem Shiferraw, and Phillippa Yaa de Villiers. The prize is administered by the African Poetry Book Fund, led by Kwame Dawes, editor-in-chief of Prairie Schooner.
In her remarks, Gabeba Baderoon described the collection as one of “exquisite language and piercingly memorable lines,” noting its “elegiac tone balanced by an insistence on beauty and love.” Poet Fady Joudah, author of The Earth in the Attic, called Imossan “a capacious poet” whose writing “takes in an entire continent and spreads it as love to the world.”
Born in southern Nigeria, Michael Imossan is an Ibibio poet from Nigeria. He is the author of the award-winning chapbook For the Love of Country and Memory (Poetrycolumnnd, 2022),which won the Nigerian News Direct Poetry Prize, The Smell of Absence (2025) and the pamphlet, A Prelude to Caving (Konyashamsrumi, 2023). His work explores themes of family, country, self-realization, love, and nature. He has been nominated for the Forward Prizes for Poetry, Best of the Net, and Pushcart Prize, and is a recipient of the PEN International Writers Grant.
All That Refuses to Die will be published as part of the African Poetry Book Series and is now available for pre-order through the University of Nebraska Press.
Sarah Adeyemo
Sarah Adeyemo, Swan IX, is a Nigerian poet, writer, editor, spoken word artiste and communication expert. The debut author of “The Shape of Silence”. She draws inspiration from solitude and experiences. She is a fellow of the SprinNG Writing Fellowship. Her works appeared or are forthcoming in Akpata Magazine, The Shallow Tales Review, The Muse Journal, The Weganda Review, Everscribe Magazine, Afrillhill Press, Poems For Persons Interest, TV-63 Magazine, Northern Writers Forum Journal, Eboquills, Rinna Lit. Anthologies, and elsewhere. She tweets @SarahInkspires.
