Isele Prizes

Isele Prizes 2024 longlists announced.

The longlists for the Isele Prizes 2024, which are in the third edition, were announced on Wednesday, March 6, 2024.

The Isele Prizes were founded to celebrate the best of short stories, poetry, and essays by writers published in the Ukamaka Olisakwe founded Isele Magazine in 2022. They are split into three categories of – short stories, poetry, and essays, and each category is judged by a panel of two judges. Winners in the first edition were Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo, Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike, and Nora Nneka. The winners in 2023 were Ashia Ajani, Jennifer Dickinson, and Chinonso Nzeh.

For 2024, the jury looked through 190 works in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry and selected the following in the shortlists announced on Wednesday;

Isele Short Story Prize

  • fritɔŋ surreal, Victor Forna
  • The Dinner Party, Percy Bharucha
  • To Live a Little, Alissia J.R. Lingaur
  • Atlas Raging Gale, Mohamed Mahou
  • Dreams of a City, Nawawi Sani-Deen
  • Propane, Propane, Alex Leslie
  • Is it Too Late? Pegah Ouji
  • Potential for Beauty, Nelson CJ
  • Parental Material, Crystal Gross
  • Origin Of Giant Trees, Elisha Oluyemi
  • She Lingers, Okoronkwo Chisom

The Isele Nonfiction Prize

  • Dear Father, I Write to You From the Land of the Living, Ucheoma Onwutuebe
  • A Few More Words About Breasts, Gloria Mwaniga
  • Neither Here Nor There: Muslim Women & Resistance, Izza Ahsan
  • Lagoon Front, Izehi Amadasu
  • Photo Series, Tushar Gidwani
  • Waist Beads, Ber Anena
  • Photo Essay, Hassnain Riza
  • How To Speak of a Miracle, Joshua Chizoma
  • The Branches and the Wind and the Rain, Zenas Ubere
  • Silence is Not My Culture (Kwuo Okwu Gi), Nora Nneka
  • Faint Lines, Nwanne Agwu
  • Queer Resistance Can Be Many Things Including Dark, obed hailsham

The Isele Poetry Prize

  • Instead Of Measuring My Life In Productivity, Melissa Sussens
  • Elegy, Kharys Ateh Laue
  • little joys (in no particular order), Adebisi Amori
  • Two Poems, Claire Pinkston
  • Two Poems, Omodero David
  • Three Poems, Erinola Daranijo
  • Two Poems, Godwin Adah
  • Gurl, Taiwo Hassan
  • Five Poems, Annalisa Hansford
  • Two Poems Chiwenite Onyekwelu

The shortlists will be made public on April 8 while the winners will be revealed on May 15.

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