Isele Prizes 2024 shortlists announced.

The shortlists for the Isele Prizes 2024, which are in the third edition, were announced on Monday, April 8, 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. The 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 longlist on Wednesday, March 6. The shortlisted entries revealed on Monday are;

Isele Short Story Prize

• fritɔŋ surreal, Victor Forna
• Propane, Propane, Alex Leslie
• Is it Too Late? Pegah Ouji
• 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
• Waist Beads, Ber Anena
• How To Speak of a Miracle, Joshua Chizoma
• Faint Lines, Nwanne Agwu

The Isele Poetry Prize

• Instead Of Measuring My Life In Productivity, Melissa Sussens
• Elegy, Kharys Ateh Laue
• Two Poems, Claire Pinkston
• Three Poems, Erinola Daranijo
• Gurl, Taiwo Hassan
• Two Poems Chiwenite Onyekwelu

The winners will be announced on May 15.

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