“I hit the road with my feet by myself, black canvas shoes building roads in red clay…”

“I loved the smell of red clay…”

In Red Clay, Tsitsi Mapepa writes from the fault lines of womanhood, memory and inheritance. These poems move through violation and resilience, girlhood and motherhood, love and betrayal, mourning and survival, tracing the intimate ways the body carries both suffering and strength.

Rooted in the imagery of red soil, ancestral memory and the female body, Red Clay confronts the violence done to women while also honouring the endurance, tenderness and fierce love that persist in its aftermath. Across four sections threaded by symbolism – the colours red and white, blood, earth, clay, fire, lava, heat, burning, sun – all accumulating layers of meaning and significance, Mapepa explores the wounds passed down through family and culture, the sacred bonds between mothers and daughters, and the difficult work of reclaiming voice, selfhood and belonging.

Unflinching yet deeply lyrical, Red Clay is a powerful debut collection about what it means to survive, to remember and to rise.
~Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure

In this powerful and candid poetry collection, the poet explores the trials and triumphs of being a woman growing up in the midst of turbulent fatherhoods and enduring motherhoods.  The red clay gives and takes. Through loss, we move a little nearer to light.
~Memory Chirere

Published: 4 December 2026
Page count: 108
Book dimensions: 6.140" x 9.210"
Cover finish: Matte
Interior colour: Black & White on groundwood paper

ISBN

Paperback: 978-1-918606-00-3

hardback: 978-1-918606-01-0

eBook: 978-1-918606-02-7

“I hit the road with my feet by myself, black canvas shoes building roads in red clay…”

“I loved the smell of red clay…”

In Red Clay, Tsitsi Mapepa writes from the fault lines of womanhood, memory and inheritance. These poems move through violation and resilience, girlhood and motherhood, love and betrayal, mourning and survival, tracing the intimate ways the body carries both suffering and strength.

Rooted in the imagery of red soil, ancestral memory and the female body, Red Clay confronts the violence done to women while also honouring the endurance, tenderness and fierce love that persist in its aftermath. Across four sections threaded by symbolism – the colours red and white, blood, earth, clay, fire, lava, heat, burning, sun – all accumulating layers of meaning and significance, Mapepa explores the wounds passed down through family and culture, the sacred bonds between mothers and daughters, and the difficult work of reclaiming voice, selfhood and belonging.

Unflinching yet deeply lyrical, Red Clay is a powerful debut collection about what it means to survive, to remember and to rise.
~Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure

In this powerful and candid poetry collection, the poet explores the trials and triumphs of being a woman growing up in the midst of turbulent fatherhoods and enduring motherhoods.  The red clay gives and takes. Through loss, we move a little nearer to light.
~Memory Chirere

Published: 4 December 2026
Page count: 108
Book dimensions: 6.140" x 9.210"
Cover finish: Matte
Interior colour: Black & White on groundwood paper

ISBN

Paperback: 978-1-918606-00-3

hardback: 978-1-918606-01-0

eBook: 978-1-918606-02-7