Tej Rae is an award-winning writer and former English teacher based in Lusaka. Since 1999, she has lived in Zambia, Senegal, the UAE, Italy, and Ethiopia with her husband and two children. Her bilingual children's book Sirens, set in Addis Ababa, came out in 2021. It led to a feature on BBC Amharic the following year. A second Amharic-English children's book, Spaced, followed. Her action-adventure film script, Abyssinia Steel, has won three awards. In 2025, she published Tigerfish, an illustrated middle grade chapter book set in Zambia. It became the number one bestseller at two Exclusive Books outlets in South Africa that summer.
These days, Tej is growing Lusaka's literary scene through LIT LSK. She runs writing workshops and pop-up book events featuring Catalyst and Modjaji titles. She's also completing an MFA at the University of Cape Town. Salaula Sisters is her debut novel.