Isele Magazine: New and Promising
Isele Magazine, a new magazine for African Literature was launched on the 30th of July, 2020.
Its founder and Editor in Chief is Ukamaka Olisakwe, author of Eyes of a Goddess (2012) and Ogadinma — a novel expected in 2020 from Masobe books.
Olisakwe is prominent for her contributions to African Literature through her writings and otherwise. In 2014, the UNESCO World Book Capital selected her as one of the 39 most promising writers under the age of 40 from Sub-Saharan Africa and the diaspora. In 2016, she was awarded an honorary fellowship in Writing from the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. In 2018, she won the Vermont College of Fine Arts’ Emerging Writer Scholarship for the MFA in Writing and Publishing program. A finalist for the Miles Morland Writing Scholarship, her works have appeared in the New York Times, Longreads, The Rumpus, Catapult, Rattle, Waxwing, Jalada, Hunger Moutain, Sampsonia Way, and more. She is currently pursuing her PhD in English at the University of South Dakota—Vermillion.
Her magazine whose mission is to “publish writers and artists who hold a mirror to our society, who challenge conventional expectations about ways of being, how to be, and who decides who should be,” is treading the path of the founder in its productivity.
Isele debuted on the same day it was launched with pieces in most of the categories they publish.
Essays by Ope Adedeji, Megan Ross, and Rita Banerjee. Fictions by E.C. Osondu, Chika Unigwe, Cameron Finch, Arinze Ifeakandu, and N. Jane Kalu. Poetry by Bianca Stone, Bianca Vinas, Logan February, and Noni Salma. They have also been in conversation with Pemi Aguda, Kola Tubosun, and Rob Spillman.
It is no surprise. Isele Magazine has an editorial team including reputable names in the African Literary scene and beyond.
Editor in Chief: Ukamaka Olisakwe
Deputy Editor: Kenechi Uzor
Fiction Editor: Tracy Haught
Poetry Editor: Saddiq Dzukogi
Nonfiction Editor: Rebecca Jamieson
Fiction and Photography Editor: Amara Okolo
Guest editors are Cameron Finch (Fiction) and Megan Ross (Nonfiction).
Isele is as well open for submissions. They seek submissions of essays, fiction, poetry, art and photography. Please visit here for the guidelines, and here to read all published works so far and going forward.
