Dulge, rageous, couth, chalant—we think of prefixes as a few letters that change a word, but what if a word is lost without one? Each prose poem in Whelmed features a word that has been unhinged from its prefix, allowing new meanings—radically unfamiliar, yet uncannily intimate—to emerge from these prefixless word deposits. Part prose-poem sequence and part encyclopedia of unpredictably irregular terms, Whelmed is at times deranging, almost disturbing, sometimes detached, and ultimately joyfully disrupting.

Nicole Markotic is a poet, novelist, and critic. She is currently a professor of creative writing, children's literature, and disability studies at the University of Windsor in Ontario.