MY VERSION OF EVENTS

A literary nonfiction exploring the stories we inherit, the stories we survive, and the stories we finally choose for ourselves.

Inside the Book Collection

MY VERSION OF EVENTS is not a memoir of a linear neat life. It is an exploration of how a life can be interpreted, questioned, dismantled, and rebuilt.

Across deeply personal essays, the author traces moments love, loss, and the quiet negotiations we make with ourselves to survive.

Some of the journeys inside the book include:

The YOU Turn (Prologue)

When a friend asked, “Who told us life is supposed to be fair?” something in me shifted.

The little girl in a polka dot dress

At eight years old, she learned a quiet rule of survival that needing less makes her easier to love.

Why I am the shebeen princess

For years, I hid the truth about what my father did for a living.

The return soldier

They called her a returnee, as if she were rejected goods returned by a customer.

Doctor, please give my dad some water!

I spent ten hours waiting for assistance in a hospital that had become indifferent to human suffering.

The promise

The hardest letter I ever wrote was the one giving my father permission to die.

Too dark to disappear

They told me I was too dark to be beautiful, and for years I believed them.

To the boy who broke me open

He did not break my heart; he broke open the walls I had built around it.

The death and rebirth of a strong Black woman

The strong Black woman died so that the strong Black woman could be born.

The social contracts I am quietly burning

I was always the emotional sanctuary for everyone, except myself.

The balcony scene of my own

Juliet’s balcony scene once felt like rebellion; then it started to mean so much more.

I am more than my ID card (Epilogue)

The danger of defining someone by their ID cards is not only misunderstanding; it is reduction. No single story can hold the multitude of a human being.

Why I Wrote This Book

My father and I shared a closeness that never needed explanation. In his presence, my worth felt unquestioned, unproven, undefended. It simply was.

When he died, I expected grief to arrive as visible sorrow and exhaustion. Instead, something quieter happened. The internal architecture that had held my life together shifted. What I believed about safety, certainty, and identity began to loosen.

In that disorientation, I began to write. Not as a project, but as a way to sit still long enough to understand what had changed.

At first, I thought I was writing my way back to the person I had been before loss.

But grief did not return me to who I was. It rewrote me.

What began as a private attempt to recentre myself slowly became a collection of essays exploring the stories we inherit, the stories we survive, and the stories we finally choose for ourselves.

My Version of Events is a record of that journey.

A video of me sharing more details behind the book will be released alongside it.

Subscribe to our YOUTUBE channel to watch the video when it drops.

Who This Book Is For

This book is for readers who are:

  • Drawn to literary nonfiction and personal essays.
  • Navigating moments of reinvention, loss, or personal transformation.
  • And for anyone who has ever wondered: “Am I living a story I co-authored, or one that just matches a script imposed on me?”

Upcoming Book Release and Pre-Order

The debut literary nonfiction collection: MY VERSION OF EVENTS will be released in June 2026.

The release will feature:

  • The full essay collection.
  • The video from the author sharing insights into the emotional journey behind writing the book. 

Be among the first readers to experience the book.

The first 25 readers will also receive the SPASH Reflection Journal to begin documenting their own version of events.

Follow the Journey to the Book Release