Oh, Yes I Can, Cer
Nedine Moonsamy

September 2026
80 pp
200mm x 130mm with flaps
ISBN: 9781048300925

"Courageous, clever and compassionate,
these poems are a testimony to the healing power of words."
– Kobus Moolman

Nedine Moonsamy’s brave and brilliant debut collection explores what happens when bodies go rogue, and when kind words become their own special form of cruelty.

When you have cancer, it turns out that many of the things people say about cancer are not all that helpful. So what can one hold onto during the dizzying, discombobulating experiences of diagnosis and treatment, chemo brain and chronic pain?

Written as much for herself as to plug a gap in South African writing about cancer, Moonsamy chronicles her journey in this archly funny and acerbic sequence of poems, full of wordplay, linguistic shock and deep introspection. A cathartic, invigorating literary experience.

Nedine Moonsamy was born in Johannesburg in 1983. She is an associate professor in the English department at the University of Johannesburg. She researches science fiction in Africa and is currently writing a monograph on contemporary South African fiction.

Her 2019 debut novel, The Unfamous Five was shortlisted for the 2021 HSS Fiction Award, and her poetry was shortlisted for the inaugural 2021 New Contrast National Poetry Award. This is her first book of poetry.