Seitlhamo Motsapi’s poetry has been widely published both on-line and in print. It has appeared in journals such as Bleksem, New Coin, Botsotso, New Contrast, Sesame, Staffrider, West Coast Line (Canada), and Tripwire (USA) and has been anthologised in a number of books: The Lava of this Land (USA), The Heart in Exile (UK), Ten South African Poets (UK), Afrika Afrika, Flora Poetica (UK), Worldscapes, A Century of South African Poetry, and It All Begins.
His first collection, earthstepper/The Ocean is very Shallow, was first published by ISEA/Deep South in 1995 and was reprinted by Deep South in 2003. Laura Chrisman, in the journal New Coin in 1996, wrote about earthstepper: “A very far cry from official New South African pietistic discourse of reconciliation, this collection brilliantly fuses pan-Africanist militancy, romantic spirituality, and a scathing attack on neo-colonialism in its global and local forms. The political urgency is never compromised by empty rhetorical posturing, or aesthetic banality: this is a rich, experimental poetry, raining down fresh imagery, complex conceits, carefully patterned to produce a volume of striking originality and stylistic rigor. This extremely exciting, multiply resonant and freshly original collection is a highly valuable contribution…”