Selome Payne, better known as Poet Flow, is a writer and publisher from the coastal city, Port Elizabeth – now based in Johannesburg.
Her journey with poetry began at the tender age of 12, when she wrote her first poem based on a
painting called Two Moons, for 1996 talk show, Indwe. From then on, writing and storytelling became an
integral part of what defines her.

Flow began publishing at the age of 18, then under the pseudonym, Kizee – short for her given Xhosa
name, Cikizwa. She further published in numerous anthologies including the Poetry Institute of Africa up until 2006.
In 2003, Flow ventured on to stage performance and found an even greater love for the arts through
Spoken Word and Hip Hop.

With performances ranging from various Nelson Mandela Bay fundraisers and poetry and hip hop
events to the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, Flow has expanded her audiences from Street
Culture to corporate functions; sharing her thoughts across all media platforms. A key element in her
journey was the time spent as part of Eastern Cape record label, TrueSight Music.

Since moving to Johannesburg in 2011, Flow established Poetree Publications. The company has
published 5 books thus far, including a collection of her own poetry called The Undelivered Score:
Letters from a poet’s heart which was reviewed by the internationally acclaimed Rita Golden Gelman,
author of Tales of a Female Nomad. All publications can be purchased online from Amazon.com. Her
company focuses on giving a publishing platform to young and aspiring writers, as well as community
development through arts and literature. Flow is also co-curator of the fast-growing, annual
Eastern Cape Book Festival and has recently had a feature interview with Urban Tymes magazine in California.

She describes her relationship with her writing as her greatest love; personifying Poetry as her universal,
higher power from which she draws all strength and energy. She lives by one simple philosophy: we are
greater than our biggest dream, and infinite are the capabilities of our minds.