Background
Botha was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1982.
Botha was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1982.
She studied Creative Writing at York University, and at the Humber College School for Writers.
She is Jewish, and is of Israeli and Lithuanian Jewish descent. As well as English, she speaks Hebrew and Afrikaans. She moved to Toronto with her family as a teenager.
She volunteered with Na-me-res and Ve’ahavta, organizations benefiting the homeless, which inspired many of the short stories in Got Number Secrets, her first book, published by Tightrope Books in Canada in May 2010, and Modjaji Books in South Africa in 2012.
The stories, which deal with addiction, abuse, suicide, and childhood, are journeys into the private lives of twelve women. Botha has lived in South Africa, Ra’anana, Israel and Halifax, Nova Scotia, all of which informed her character’s experiences in her debut novel.
Too Much on the Inside, which was published in May 2015 by Quattro Books, follows four newcomers to Toronto who struggle with their pasts, their new home and falling in love. Too Much on the Inside has been reviewed by Quill and Quire Magazine, The Literary Review of Canada, and Book Clubbish.
Botha"s novel has been described as an "extraordinary..narrative, which.. reveals a deep understanding of human nature." and writing which contains "an admirable freshness and enthusiasm."
Her second collection of short stories called Foreign All the Men (and Some of the Women) I"ve Known, will be published in 2016 by Tightrope Books.
She is also beginning work on her first graphic novel, The World is Dead and I am Full of Joy. She has contributed to the National Post’s the Afterword, The Huffington Post and the 49th Shelf among others