“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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 …

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…

"Before a person dies, you talk to them. They die, and you still want to talk to them."