Isaac Akanmu
Poet
Books
hallelujah, honey bun (2026)
Book DescriptionThere is no questioning the power of a favorite snack. The flavor profiles, textures, presentation, and mere mention of the snacks in our personal histories can trigger memories otherwise out of reach. hallelujah, honey bun is a collection of poems following the crumbs of honey buns through warm nostalgia into raw reflection. Priced at two for a dollar, the honey bun was the unofficial snack of latchkey kids and cornerstore regulars in New York City. This collection unwraps the sweet swirls and forgotten ingredients that shaped a boy and his community. As a spiritual map, hallelujah, honey bun connects after-school rituals with the macro and micro ingredients influencing generations of city kids.Praise for hallelujah, honey bunhallelujah, honey bun is a coming of age story told in parables and memories that live in the sweetness of cornerstore treats. What forms a generation, how is a star born—what manna sustains the stargazers? Isaac Akanmu creates a mythology wherein we are close and grounded and fearless, then suddenly “we dap hands and drift apart like continents.” A testament to everything we hold and lose as we outgrow, and a compelling, compelling collection!
— Junious 'Jay' Ward, author of Compositionhallelujah, honey bun is a lyrically raw homage to childhood, with poems that unfurl like prayers and testimonies, ever-communing with the unseeable. Akanmu deftly transverses memory through cosmic brownies, black cherry sodas, and other coveted cornerstore “manna.” Through after-school mischief and “strawberry [milk] seances,” hallelujah, honey bun ignites a religion out of ritual and consumption, at-once resurrecting and confronting what feeds us. With sincerity and tenderness, Akanmu implores that we question how what we revere alights our spirits and still harms the preciousness of our bodies.
— Olivia Dorsey Peacock, author of but first, water (forthcoming)
not belonging anywhere (2022)
Published by Bottlecap Press, not belonging anywhere is a chapbook challenging personal identity and poetic form. Dribbling through basketball arenas, barbecues, family get-togethers, funerals, worship services, and prison courtyards, not belonging anywhere continually searches for bodily and spiritual rest in a tired world.As a conceptual collection, each poem borrows its title from a franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA). As readers travel through the league’s divisions, the poetic form shifts, featuring forms like haibun, the American sonnet, Terrance Hayes’s golden shovel, and hybrid inventions. Cultural and faith-filled experiences — both personal and witnessed — explore themes of injustice, miseducation, love, family, hope, and purpose. not belonging anywhere has something for everyone, especially free agents in search of a permanent team.
Poems
Selected Poems
- date night where we become vital organs, Anthropocene, 2025
- Only Noah Was Left, Ekstasis Magazine, 2025
- the one where i am a boring movie with a terrible rating, Chestnut Review, 2024
- two poems, The Westchester Review, 2024
- parable of the young girl holding a basket of eggs, Litmosphere, 2024
- two poems, The Banyan Review, 2023
- three poems, The Hellebore, 2023
- starbury, Jellyfish Review, 2022
- comic relief, Ekstasis Magazine, 2022
- raptors, Olney Magazine, 2022[1]
- three poems, Posit Journal, 2022
- cavaliers, cool rock repository, 2022
- spongebob's golden shovel, OROTONE Journal, 2022
- snakeskin boots, Rejection Letters, 2022
- fall collection, Ekstasis Magazine, 2022
- fur mink, Ekstasis Magazine, 2022
- mavericks, Lammergeier Magazine, 2021
- HOME, Encounters Magazine, 2019
- four poems, Encounters Magazine, Spring 2019[1]
- One Day, Encounters Magazine, Fall 2018[1][1] print only
About
Isaac Akanmu is a Nigerian American writer from Staten Island, NY, now residing in Charlotte, NC. He is the author of two poetry chapbooks: hallelujah, honey bun (Harbor Editions, forthcoming) and not belonging anywhere (Bottlecap Press, 2022). His words also appear in The Westchester Review, Chestnut Review, Ekstasis Magazine, and more. Isaac was the recipient of the 2023 Charlotte GoodLit Fellowship. Connect with Isaac on Instagram and X (@insteadofisaac).
Contact
Feel free to contact me with business inquiries, questions, comments, concerns, or simply to chat.