@IseleMagazine

A literary magazine that publishes notable fiction, poetry, essays, interviews, and book reviews.

iselemagazine.com
Joined July 2020
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Submissions are open for our next quarterly! For this quarterly issue, we want submissions that revolve around the theme of water. Rivers, seas, oceans, rain, drought, reefs, mermaids, pirates…all things water. Send us stories, essays, poetry, & more. iselemagazine.com/2026/10/13…

Call for Submissions: Water

“my dear,we are all made of water.it’s okay to rage. sometimesit’s okay to rest. to recede.”― Sanober Khan, A Thousand Flamingoes“The river is time, and we are alwayswithin it – even wh…

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And Desire Fails | IfeOluwa Nihinlola iselemagazine.com/2025/11/15…

And Desire Fails | IfeOluwa Nihinlola

Before we traveled to the polling stations where we would work as ad hoc officers, before we rode to the local government headquarters with a policeman we had flagged down and then on to the collat…

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Shame | Adéọlá Ládọjà iselemagazine.com/2025/08/30…

Shame | Adéọlá Ládọjà

Kòfowórọlá had only been yelled at today by his mother. He had not really been beaten. It was a weekday, but the schools were on holiday. If they weren’t, he would have had to sweep the entire comp…

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In the Dust | Karen Jennings iselemagazine.com/2024/12/06…

In the Dust | Karen Jennings

A triptych [Bokkeveld, South Africa, 1747] 1 They had been sent out to dig for uintjies. There was only one iron rod, the other missing when she had gone to fetch them from behind the door. She too…

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Some Seasons I Have Known | Kemi Falodun iselemagazine.com/2024/12/06…

Some Seasons I Have Known | Kemi Falodun

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…

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Young Writers Don’t Need Anyone’s Permission: An Interview with NoViolet Bulawayo iselemagazine.com/2025/11/15…

Young Writers Don’t Need Anyone’s Permission: An Interview with NoViolet Bulawayo

NoViolet Bulawayo’s short story, “Hitting Budapest,” won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2011, and last month it won the Best of Caine award, in celebration of the initiative’s 25th annivers…

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Isele Magazine retweeted
Troy Onyango@TroyOnyangoOct 12
read and support african literary magazines. read @lolwe_ read @sarabamag read @doeklitmag read @iselemagazine read @kalaharireview read @podapodasl read @omenanamag and many others out there doing the work!
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Embedded Threads | Bongiwe Maphosa iselemagazine.com/2025/12/30…

Embedded Threads | Bongiwe Maphosa

Melo has been awake for the past ten minutes staring at the iron roof and ignoring the blaring alarm on her phone. The baby – her baby – sleeps soundly against her chest, small lips twitching with …

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The Things That Stay | Taslym Umar iselemagazine.com/2025/12/30…

The Things That Stay | Taslym Umar

The room is a slow oven. Heat sits in the corners, in the thin cotton of my wrapper, in the little bone hollows behind my knees. I sit on the edge of the bed, and the wrapper clings to my thighs. T…

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Texture | Saddiq Dzukogi iselemagazine.com/2026/03/16…

Texture | Saddiq Dzukogi

I thought I understood the world. But this orb has been spun and spun and my vision of it now is, at best, fickle. What I truly feel of it is doubt; some days, anger; others, scorn. And beauty, whe…

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American Caste | Rita Banerjee iselemagazine.com/2026/03/16…

American Caste | Rita Banerjee

There’s an old saying in India: “If you move across oceans, you lose all caste.” The dictum is meant to be a presage, a warning to those who seek the riches and adventures of outside worlds and onc…

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Three Poems | Mubanga Kalimamukwento iselemagazine.com/2024/10/15…

Three Poems | Mubanga Kalimamukwento

children of small placesa secret truth pulsatesinside the drummer’s palmbetween the first ululation& the last dying soundfrom before her music became spectaclebefore scaredness became ritual&am…

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“What Price Do Women Pay When They Rebel?”: An Interview with Mubanga Kalimamukwento iselemagazine.com/2026/03/16…

“What Price Do Women Pay When They Rebel?”: An Interview with Mubanga Kalimamukwento

Mubanga Kalimamukwento is the multi-award-winning author of The Mourning Bird, Obligations to the Wounded, Another Mother Does Not Come When Yours Dies, and The Shipikisha …

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Young Writers Don’t Need Anyone’s Permission: An Interview with NoViolet Bulawayo iselemagazine.com/2025/11/15…

Young Writers Don’t Need Anyone’s Permission: An Interview with NoViolet Bulawayo

NoViolet Bulawayo’s short story, “Hitting Budapest,” won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2011, and last month it won the Best of Caine award, in celebration of the initiative’s 25th annivers…

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Daylight | David Emeka iselemagazine.com/2026/08/30…

Daylight | David Emeka

I gave myself exactly one minute before ringing the bell again, examining the flowers outside his fence, which were prim and green and lively. Then I tried to look about; in any new place beside my…

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I Mistook My Name for Constellation | Salwa Emerson iselemagazine.com/2026/08/30…

I Mistook My Name for Constellation | Salwa Emerson

A red leather photo album sat on a bookshelf in our living room throughout my childhood. Inside it, under textured vellum sheets, a collection of square photos was held loosely in place by adhesive…

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For Now, That’s Enough | Garima Chhikara iselemagazine.com/2026/08/30…

For Now, That’s Enough | Garima Chhikara

That night, I stood in the dark, tangled in my clothes, fingers trembling against buttons I couldn’t undo. I gave up and fell onto the bed half-dressed. I couldn’t sleep. I kept replaying what I ha…

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His Only Current Wife | R. Makama iselemagazine.com/2026/08/30…

His Only Current Wife | R. Makama

Kano, 2015  On a chilly Friday evening, the earth still damp from the season’s first rains, my husband told me he was taking another wife.  Everything inside me dropped. My vision wavered…

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Newcomer | 'Pemi Aguda iselemagazine.com/2026/08/30…

Newcomer | ‘Pemi Aguda

They might be a small congregation, just over forty, but the Lord is good to them. Didn’t Brother Timothy’s goitre, grotesque and distracting, shrivel into itself after Pastor Joseph and Assistant …

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Notes of a Nonresident Alien | Tolu Daniel iselemagazine.com/2024/08/30…

Notes of a Nonresident Alien | Tolu Daniel

Suppose I were to begin by saying that I don’t know what I am doing. That even this process of writing this essay, of committing my thoughts to paper, has become like everything else, a chore. That…

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