Isa has written 11 novels, 3 collections of poetry, a collection of short stories, a book of essays on Singapore Malay poetry, a collection of theatre scripts and lyrics of 3 song albums, all in Malay. His novels have been translated into English, Turkish, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, Jawi, Indonesian, Thai, Russian and Mandarin. His collections of essays and a collection of poems have been translated into English. His first novel written in English, Tweet was published in 2016. Isa was conferred the Southeast Asia Write Award from Thailand in 2006, the Singapore Cultural Medallion in 2007, the Anugerah Tun Seri Lanang from the Singapore Malay Language Council in 2009, and the Mastera Literary Award from Brunei Darussalam in 2018.
