Ret’sepile Makamane was born and raised in Lesotho. She read Philosophy and Theatre at the National University of Lesotho, and then moved to Johannesburg where she studied Drama and Film at the University of Witwatersrand. There she worked as an actress, waitress and reviewed books for a local newspaper before becoming a Commissioning Editor for SABC television (The South African Broadcasting Corporation). She came to England in 2008 on a Graça Machel Scholarship, and wrote her Dissertation at the University of Leeds on the role of girl-soldiers in the Liberian Civil War. She is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. Her story, “Be Careful!”, was shortlisted for the 2010 Harper’s Bazaar/Orange Short Story Competition. The Charles Pick Fellowship gave her the opportunity to complete her first collection of short stories.