Born and raised in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, Shelley Barry completed graduate studies in English and Drama at the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape. She has worked extensively as a disability rights activist, following a shooting in the Cape taxi wars of 1996 that resulted in her being a wheelchair user. Shelley is also a playwright, having written two plays that were performed in theatres in South Africa. She was one of the editors and featured writer of South Africa's first multi-genre anthology of black women's writing.
