About
Why I Began Writing
“Nothing helps me make sense of life and its people, more than writing. And so it is a way of seeing, listening, healing and being.”
— Tshego Khatri, Founder
The Founders
Founder
Tshego Khatri
Founder of The Selves of Us literary agency. Botswana-born, East London–based — the voice and vision behind it.
Co-Founder
Roy Michael Hewett
Editor & Co-Founder. Retired principal, UCT English graduate and published author who shapes every piece.
The Manifesto
It's the unmasking that I love as a writer. So the stories on these pages are inspired by my deepest parts. The complexities of us humans is a never ending source of fascination. And how words and language shape ideas, people, cultures and places.
So we are many stories — as we meet, interact, come and go in each other's lives. My dream is to share those stories of others too.
May they hold up mirrors for us to truly see how all life on this beautiful Earth is connected.
A New Beginning
I invite you to my conscious journey of exploration and discovery, as true as I dare to be, and as vulnerable as I can be.
My hope is that truth, pain, freedom, beauty, art, and most of all, grace, will accompany me on my journey toward seeing and listening to a shared and common humanity: our differences can be the gifts diversity brings for all, so the goodness of humanity can shine through.
A humanity that tries with as much objectivity to rend apart that which diverges and sprouts little truths, which causes never ending parallels.
But with consciousness we can choose what and how to perceive.
Before The Selves of Us
I fell into writing at almost eleven — the first time I watched the complicated things raging inside me grow quiet, simply because I could finally see them on paper. I have written ever since, as much to understand my life as to survive it, and reading followed close behind: books are, for my soul, what air is for my body. My story runs across Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe; I grew up in Botswana and spent some of my happiest years working in the magical Okavango Delta. It has been an unconventional life — no higher education, a couple of exquisite failures, and a soft spot for rainbows, butterflies and the colour indigo — but its greatest lesson is this: writing and I are intertwined, yet remain two distinct works.
Founder
Tshego Khatri
Tshego is South African, born in Botswana and lives in East London, Eastern Cape. She is the founder of The Selves of Us, a literary agency and home for honest, human storytelling. Her debut book is coming out soon.
Dreamer · Writer · Poet
Co-Founder, Editor & Contributor
Roy Michael Hewett
Grew up in Cape Town and Uitenhage, born in East London. Attended Muir College and Wynberg Boys' High School, graduated from UCT as a high school teacher of English, Mathematics and Geography. Principal of Port Alfred HS (8¼ years) then Hudson Park HS in East London (17¾ years) until 2016. Retirement taken up by writing, editing budding authors, consulting for a new independent school on the Wild Coast, learning isiXhosa, and appreciating the natural wonders of the Eastern Cape. Since 2022, editing and publishing with Harry's Printers.
Prolific Writer · Editor
Published Works
- Prose and Poetry... to Ponder Perchance to Dream (2021) · Poetry & Prose (Vol 1 of Trilogy)
- Two Short Stories (2020) · Fiction
- Pandemic Papers... a World Changed (2021) · Non-fiction
- Pandemic Papers 2 (2023) · Non-fiction (sequel)
- Knights of Hope (2024) · Novel
Current Work
- · South African Stories and Reflections on Life
- · Novel: The Sounds of Distant Drums
- · Monthly column for 2 regional newspapers since 2017 — on life, nature and situations to ponder
Why Human Writing Still Matters
The internet is drowning in AI-generated content. We built this platform for a different kind of reader. Every piece on The Selves of Us is written by a human who lived through something.
You can tell the difference. So can we.
We are looking for contributors →