“Fantasy. Lunacy. All revolutions are, until they happen, then they are historical inevitabilities.”― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas   For this quarterly issue of Isele Magazine, we ask you…

“This is what rituals are for. We do spiritual ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so that we don’t have to haul t…

TABLE OF CONTENTS Fiction Devotion | Kabubu Mutua bullets & blossoms | Victor Forna A Fragment of My Spectrum | Doreen Masika Teeth, Tall Men, and Trouble | Yeayi Kobin…

and the two men, face to face, dancers, spin, spin, spin, guns in their hands like shɛgburɛ: soldier + madman, in the middle of a street, on a cardboard stage: they are not silent, but there are no…

At first, you were situated in space within a single, cosy column of air, your pockets empty, wrists braid-braceleted, hearts brimming; the ether pillar fortressing your synchronous, collective exh…

Editor’s Note: In partnership with The 2023 EIO Workshop, Isele Magazine publishes the works selected by the facilitator, Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo. Josiah Ikpe’s “Not Like Other Boys” i…

The first thing you should know about No. 39 Faulks Street is that it does not really exist, at least not to the folks who live on Faulks Street or in Selemku. Popular town gossip has it that a wom…

Not everything lasts forever, and that’s okay. For this quarterly issue of Isele Magazine, we are seeking submissions that revolve around the ephemeral – those transient yet profoundly meaningful m…

In These Strange Bodies, Court Ludwick’s essays and poems fracture both form and content, mirroring the fragmented nature of memory and identity. Ludwick’s collection confronts a year of…

Editor’s Note: In partnership with The 2024 Abebi Award in Afro-Nonfiction, Isele Magazine publishes the winner, the runner-up, and the notable essays selected by the curators of the award. Ma…

Editor’s Note: In partnership with The 2024 Abebi Award in Afro-Nonfiction, Isele Magazine publishes the winner, the runner-up, and the notable essays selected by the curators of the award. Fa…

OWO The days got colder and drier, lips chapped and dust settled on everything. We cleaned the tables and railings, discarded old, musty clothes. We scrubbed the floor, rearranged the sofas, and ga…

Last year, we published a list of books we were excited to read and eventually enjoyed. The list featured Chigozie Obioma; Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond; ‘Pemi Aguda, whose debut collection, Ghostroots, w…

Brief How briefthe moments of then, there, nowyet you dance a still dance in the space between ink-black shadows.An Exchange of Equal ThingsI told the moon to move further backwe want more air and …

TABLE OF CONTENTS Fiction Sports Ball | Nathaniel Krenkel Storm at the Crossing | Great Opara Clucking | Victor Ola-Matthew They Flap Arown | Amanda Yskamp Burning Questions | Susan L. Lin Nonficti…

Smoke permeates my bedroom walls, seeps in through cracks around the windows—I know it’s there the minute I wake up. My family is noted for our good noses, sniffing the air at the faintest whiff of…

Jackson caresses his freshly shaven jawline and ponders whether or not the beard has become some kind of new fascist tell. He deliberates as he stands in the sporting goods store north of Stewart, …

From Tolu Daniel’s “Notes of a Nonresident Alien” to Kemi Falodun’s stirring piece, “Some Seasons I Have known,” check out our top ten most popular essays of this year. Heartwood …

From Adams Adeosun’s “Matrimony” to Chantelle Chiwetalu’s “Koala, Koala, Koala,” check out our top ten most popular fiction of this year. Eating Yam with Palm Oi…

From Mubanga Kalimamukwento’s three poems to Adedayo Agarau’s memorable lines, check out our top ten most popular poems of this year. Two Poems | Chiwenite Onyekwelu I say I’m fine…

That was quite intense, wasn’t it? so good! Tunde says, smiling and panting. He lies on his back in an oversized bed, talking to Ròrie, who is also on her back. She is not smiling or panting. She l…