Ashia Ajani Wins the 2023 Isele Poetry Prize for “Two Poems”
In a world that commodifies and appropriates Blackness whilst concurrently seeking to eradicate Black people, Ashia Ajani’s intentional and unapologetic centering of Blackness in her poems is an act of defiance. This is evident in both “grief spinning” and “a black hair study in commensalism, i.e. grease and glory in the marshlands of my scalp” where Blackness plays a crucial role in the storytelling, lyricism, and imagery of the poems, from the seamless integration of Lucille Clifton’s work in “grief spinning” to the vivid exploration of Black hair care in “a black hair study in commensalism, i.e. grease and glory in the marshlands of my scalp”.
Ashia’s poems are marvelous pieces of writing, and Isele Magazine is grateful for the opportunity to share their work with the world.
Read Ajani’s “Two Poems.”
Announcing the Shortlist
“Two Poems” by Ashia Ajani
Ashia Ajani is a sunshower, a glass bead, a carnivorous plant, an overripe nectarine. Ajani is a multi-genre environmental storyteller & educator hailing from Denver, CO, Queen City of the Plains and the unceded territory of the Cheyenne, Ute, and Arapahoe peoples. Ajani is a lecturer in the African American Studies Department at UC Berkeley and a climate resilient schools educator and researcher with Mycelium Youth Network. Their debut poetry collection, Heirloom, is forthcoming April 2023 with Write Bloody Publishing. A Black future is happening, always.
“In The Parking Lot” by Alec Solomita
Alec Solomita is a writer working in the Boston area. His fiction has appeared in the Southwest Review, The Mississippi Review, Southword Journal, among other publications. He was shortlisted by the Bridport Prize and Southword Journal. His poetry has appeared in Poetica, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Driftwood Press, The Rye Whiskey Review, The Galway Review, and elsewhere, including several anthologies. His poetry chapbook “Do Not Forsake Me,” was published in 2017. His full-length poetry book, “Hard To Be a Hero,” was released by Kelsay Books last spring.
“Three Poems” by Ber Anena
Ber Anena is a Ugandan writer, editor and performer. Her poetry and prose have been published in The Atlantic, adda, The Caine Prize anthology, Brittle Paper, Isele, The Plentitudes, New Daughters of Africa anthology, The Kalahari Review, among others. She’s a Ph.D. student in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Anena attended the MFA Writing program at Columbia University in New York, and holds degrees in journalism and human rights from Makerere University in Uganda. She’s the author of the award-winning poetry collection, A Nation in Labour.
“At Night I Sing My Heads to Sleep” by Matt Hart
Matt Hart is the author of FAMILIAR (Pickpocket Books 2022) and nine other books of poems. Additionally, his poems, reviews, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous print and online journals, including American Poetry Review, Big Bell, Conduit, jubilat, Kenyon Review, Lungfull!, and POETRY, among others. He was a co-founder and the editor-in-chief of Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking & Light Industrial Safety from 1993-2019. Currently, he lives in Cincinnati where he teaches at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and plays in the band NEVERNEW: www.nevernew.net.
“Four Poems” by Echezonachukwu Nduka
Echezonachukwu Nduka, a Nigerian poet and pianist, is the author of Chrysanthemums for Wide-eyed Ghosts (Griots Lounge: 2018), and Waterman (Griots Lounge: 2020). He was educated at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Kingston University London, UK. Recipient of the 2016 Korea-Nigeria Poetry Prize, his work has appeared in Isele Magazine, The Indianapolis Review, Kissing Dynamite, Transition, Saraba, Bakwa Magazine, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Jalada Africa, A Thousand Voices Rising: An Anthology of Contemporary African Poetry, 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry Vol. II, among others. In 2022, Chrysanthemums for Wide-eyed Ghosts was shortlisted for the Pan-African Writers Association (PAWA) Poetry Prize. His poetry explores themes on memory, faith, afterlife, music, and the quotidian.
Website: https://www.artnduka.com/
The Isele Poetry Prize 2023: Longlist Announced
We are delighted to announce the longlist for the 2023 edition of The Isele Poetry Prize.
The poems we publish at Isele Magazine are brilliant and defiant, and this made narrowing down the longlist quite challenging. Our in-house judges agreed that the poems on this list capture our mission: to provide a platform for works that hold a mirror to our society. These writers continually remind us of the transformative power of stories and the beauty of language. Publishing them was an honor.
On that note, see the longlist in no particular order:
“In The Parking Lot” by Alec Solomita
“Four Poems” by Echezonachukwu Nduka
“Three Poems” by Ber Anena
“Reborn” by Gary Beck
“Two Poems” by Salawu Olajide
“Self-Portrait of Grief as Fire” Zaynab Bobi
“Two Poems” by EJ Schoenborn
“Two Poems” by Ashia Ajani
“Pride” by Hayden Dansky
“At Night I Sing My Heads to Sleep” by Matt Hart
Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike Wins the Isele Poetry Prize for “there’s more”
Umezurike’s poem travels around the world, gathering stories about people who search for new beginnings despite the dangers that lurk in the deserts and in the seas, dangers that nip dreams at the bud, but which our seekers must brave for their sanity, for a moment away from the despair they leave behind. Umezurike’s poem is timeless, and we are so lucky he trusted us with his work.
Read “there’s more.“
Announcing the Shortlist
“Two Poems” by Romeo Oriogun
Romeo Oriogun is the author of Sacrament of Bodies, a finalist for the Lambda Award for Poetry. He has received fellowships and support from Ebedi International Writers Residency, Harvard University, Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Oregon Institute for Creative Research, and the IIE- Artist Protection Fund. Winner of the 2017 Brunel International African Poetry Prize and an alumnus of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he currently lives in Ames where he is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Iowa State University.
“Four Poems” by Joanna George
Joanna George (She/Her) is a poet and research student at Pondicherry University, India. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Parentheses Journal, Epoch Press, Cordite Poetry Review, Honey Literary, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, West Trestle Review, and others. She tweets at j_leaseofhope.
“there’s more” and “Two Poems” by Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike
Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Alberta, Canada. An alumnus of the International Writing Program (USA), Umezurike is the author of Wish Maker (Masobe Books, 2021), Double Wahala, Double Trouble (Griots Lounge Publishing, 2021), and a co-editor of Wreaths for Wayfarers, an anthology of poems (Daraja Press, 2020). His poems and short fiction have been widely anthologized online and in print magazines, and he has interviewed dozens of writers for Read Alberta, Prism International, Brittle Paper, and Africa in Words.
“Three Poems” by Kelli Russell Agodon
Kelli Russell Agodon’s newest book is Dialogues with Rising Tides from Copper Canyon Press. She is the cofounder of Two Sylvias Press where she works as an editor and book cover designer. She lives in a sleepy seaside town in Washington State on traditional lands of the Chimacum, Coast Salish, S’Klallam, and Suquamish people where she is an avid paddleboarder and hiker. She teaches at Pacific Lutheran University’s low-res MFA program, the Rainier Writing Workshop. Kelli is currently part of a project between local land trusts and artists to help raise awareness for the preservation of land, ecosystems, and biodiversity called Writing the Land. www.agodon.com / www.twosylviaspress.com
“Three Poems” by Chisom Okafor
Chisom Okafor, Nigerian poet and clinical nutritionist, lives and writes in Lagos. He divides his time between the diet clinic of a military hospital and its college of nursing, where he teaches clinical nutrition, diet therapy and hospital practice. His poems appear in Prairie Schooner, adda (Commonwealth Writers), Rattle, Beloit Poetry Journal, Hotazel Review, SAND, Thrush Poetry Journal and elsewhere.He has received nominations for the Gerald Kraak Prize, Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, and a Pushcart Prize. He has also previously co-edited the 20.35 Africa Anthology of Contemporary Poetry and the Libretto Chapbook Series. He tweets @chisomokafor16.
Announcing the Longlist
We are delighted to announce the longlist for the inaugural edition of The Isele Poetry Prize.
Narrowing down the poems was challenging because the works that we publish at Isele Magazine are brilliant, defiant, and poignantly explore themes that challenge conventional expectations. Publishing them was such a joy. These exceptional poets remind us of the transformative power of stories and the beauty of language.
The works that appear in this longlist encapsulate our mission: to provide a platform for writers who hold a mirror to our society.
On that note, see the longlist in no particular order:
The Isele Poetry Prize
“Two Poems” by Romeo Oriogun
“Five Poems” by Adeyele Adeniran
“Four Poems” by Joanna George
“Balls of Mess” by Muyera Sokoo
“The One Good Eyes of the Room” by Susan Rich
“there’s more” and “Two Poems” by Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike
“Six Poems” by Sarah Rebecca Kersley
“Six Poems” by Francine Simon
“Three Poems” by Kelli Russell Agodon
“Three Poems” by Chisom Okafor
About the Prize
The prize is for a suite of poems or single poems published in Isele Magazine in the past year.
The judges will publish the longlist of ten suites of poems or single poems in February, and a shortlist of five in March. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony at the end of April.
Updates
We will occasionally update this page with the most recent news about the prize, including the longlist, the shortlist, the winner, the interviews with our writers, and details about the award ceremony.
Isele Magazine 