Award-winning poet celebrates her first published poetry collection

Rotenda Gavhi was the winner of the prestigious National Library of South Africa (NLSA) Poetry Slam in 2020, where she was awarded a publishing contract, as well as a professional Writing Mentorship Programme. Today she celebrates the publication of her debut poetry collection, called Heyi Ndi Philamisevhe.

Rotenda resides at Duvhuledza village and is an accounting sciences student at the Northwest University. She is ecstatic to finally be a published author. “After so many years of writing, my dream has finally come true. It feels unreal to look at a book that has my name and picture on it,” she said. “The title of the collection on its own has a very strong personal message; it simply means that all the poems in the book have a way to make one courageous when reading and after reading them.”

Her objective, while she wrote these poems, was to offer hope to the hopeless. “Many people are sad and unhappy, and hopefully my poems can give them some new courage to press on, regardless of the challenges they are faced with. It is for both young and old, and definitely entertaining,” she said. 

Rotenda is also an ambassador for the New York Academy of Sciences, a graphic designer and one of the directors of BeThatGirl.

Rotenda Gavhi is available on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and can be reached on Tel 072 221 9708 or [email protected]. Heyi Ndi Philamisevhe currently sells at R130.

Entertainment - Date: 11 July 2021

Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

Email: [email protected]