Upile Chisala

{{Short description|Malawian poet and scientist}}

{{Infobox poet

| name = Upile Chisala

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1994}}

| occupation = Poet

| birth_place = Malawi

| notable_works = soft magic, nectar, a fire like you

| education = University of Oxford
New Mexico State University

| movement = instapoetry

}}

Upile Chisala (born 1994) is a poet from Malawi. She prefers the term "storyteller." She is considered an Instapoet.{{Cite journal |last=Lipenga |first=Ken Junior |last2=Mtenje |first2=Asante Lucy |date=2023 |title=Black Women and Self-Care: A Black Feminist Reading of Upile Chisala’s Poetry |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/80/article/913029 |journal=Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=343–360 |issn=1936-1645}} She is often considered to belong to Malawi's third generation of writers.{{Cite journal |last=Lipenga |first=Ken Junior |date=2022-07-04 |title="Maybe We Carry Our Mothers’ Traumas in Our Bones": Exploring the Paradox of Matrophobia in Upile Chisala’s Poetry |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00497878.2022.2053978 |journal=Women's Studies |language=en |volume=51 |issue=5 |pages=560–574 |doi=10.1080/00497878.2022.2053978 |issn=0049-7878|url-access=subscription }} She has won numerous awards, including Forbes Africa's 30 Under 30.

Chisala was born in south-east Malawi in 1994,{{Cite web |last=Hawksley |first=Rupert |date=2019-11-05 |title=How Upile Chisala became a voice for young, black women around the world |url=https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/books/how-upile-chisala-became-a-voice-for-young-black-women-around-the-world-1.933464 |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=The National |language=en}} and grew up in Zomba.{{Cite web |date=2019-07-01 |title=#30Under30: Creatives Category 2019 |url=https://www.forbesafrica.com/under-30/2019/07/01/30under30-creatives-category-2019/ |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=www.forbesafrica.com |language=en}} She began writing poetry at thirteen.

At seventeen, Chisala moved to the United States, where she majored in sociology with minors in Women's Studies and Law & Society at New Mexico State University.{{Cite journal |last=Boqo |first=Bella |date=2023-01-02 |title="Let Black Girls Be": The (Insta)poetry of Upile Chisala and its resistance to coloniality of being |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13825577.2023.2200431 |journal=European Journal of English Studies |language=en |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=81–100 |doi=10.1080/13825577.2023.2200431 |issn=1382-5577|url-access=subscription }} She began writing poetry at college to process experiences with racism. She graduated in 2015, but struggled finding a steady job. Chisala continued to write poetry, and self-published her first book of poems, Soft Magic, which includes poems she wrote during college. These poems reflected on her feeling like "an oddity."

Chisala then attended the University of Oxford, where she enrolled for a Master's of Science in African studies. She later moved to Johannesburg, South Africa.{{Cite thesis |title=Shaping worldviews: An analysis of post-secular feminist poetry of the diaspora |url=http://ir.nust.na:8080/jspui/handle/10628/893 |date=2019-10-31 |degree=Thesis |language=en |first=Fallon Alicia |last=Strauss}}{{Cite web |last=lvernaci |date=2019-08-22 |title=Poet Upile Chisala charms U.S. fans |url=https://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/poet-upile-chisala-charms-u-s-fans/ |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=Andrews McMeel Universal |language=en-US}}

In 2017, Chisala published her second collection, Nectar, exploring her experience with depression and complicated relationship with her parents. Following the book's success, Chisala signed a book deal with Andrews McMeel Publishing. Andrews McMeel republished her first two books. Her third collection is titled A Fire Like You.

Chisala founded a mentorship program for writers in Johannesburg, Khala Series.