Photo by Adam Mays

b. 1990, Durban, South Africa
Based in Edinburgh, Scotland
LinkedIn page


Roles:


Qualifications:

  • PhD, English & Writing Practice, University of Dundee, 2024

  • MA, English Language & Literature, University of Cape Town, 2016

  • BA (Hons), Media Theory & Practice, University of Cape Town, 2011

  • BA, English and Journalism & Media Studies Rhodes University, 2010


Awards, scholarships and grants:

  • Winner: K. Sello Duiker Memorial Award, 2022, for A Hibiscus Coast

  • Winner: Nadine Gordimer Award, 2018, for The First Law of Sadness

  • Winner: Thomas Pringle Award for Short Story in Periodicals and Best Short Play, 2016, for “1-HR FOTO”

  • Winner: National Arts Festival Short Sharp Stories Awards, 2014, for “Turning”

  • Winner: South African Arts Journalism Awards Special Merit for Features, 2014, for “Vida Loves You”

  • Runner-up: Desperate Literature Award for Short Fiction, 2021, for “Section 22”

  • Nominee: South African National Arts & Culture Awards Outstanding Publisher Award, 2026, for uHlanga Press

  • Nominee: South African Arts Journalist of the Year, 2014 and 2015

  • Shortlisted: BBC National Short Story Award, 2023, for “The Storm”

  • Shortlisted: NIHSS Award for Best Poetry, 2023, for The Book of Unrest

  • Shortlisted: New Contrast National Poetry Prize, 2021

  • Shortlisted: Nadine Gordimer Award, 2017, for Stations

  • Shortlisted: White Review Prize, 2015, for “Posman”

  • Longlisted: Sunday Times Fiction Prize, 2024, for Tunnel

  • Longlisted: Sunday Times Fiction Prize, 2022, for A Hibiscus Coast

  • Longlisted: Edge Hill Prize, 2017, for Stations

  • Mail & Guardian Young South African, 2018

  • Skye Foundation Scholar, 2019–2024

  • Oppenheimer Memorial Trust grant, 2019–2024

  • Institute for Creative Arts grant, for production of biography at ICA Live Arts Festival, 2018

  • Mandela Rhodes Scholar, 2015–2016


Publications:

I am the author of a number of books of fiction. My writing – fiction, poetry and journalism – has appeared in various media around the world, including on BBC Radio 4, Radio 2000 (South Africa), and Citi FM (Ghana); in World Literature Today, The White Review, the Sunday Times, the Mail & Guardian, Chimurenga, Portside Review, The Johannesburg Review of Books, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. See writing and editing for more info.


Panels, talks, lectures, etc.:

This is an incomplete list.

Lectures:

  • Zoë Wicomb Memorial Lecture, English Academy of South Africa, 1 December 2026 (forthcoming, online)

Interviews and panels:

  • Franschhoek Literary Festival 2024:

  • Panelist on “Transnational Africa: Print Culture, Adaptation, Translation”, Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation Research Centre, St. Hilda’s College, Oxford University, 14 June 2022

  • Panelist on “Alternate Voices: Makhzin”, in conjunction with Publishing Against the Grain, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, 13 January 2018 (with Mirene Arsanios, Palesa Motsumi and Sven Christian)

  • Moderator of launch of Purity by Jonathan Franzen, Good Hope Seminary School, Cape Town, 3 November 2017 (with Jonathan Franzen)

  • Panelist on “Literary Crossroads: Nick Mulgrew & Martin Egblewogbe”, Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg, 7 September 2016

Readings:

  • Poetry on the Links, Bijou, Edinburgh, 2 April 2026 (with Tarn MacArthur, Gabrielle Tse and Matthew James Appleby)

  • Open Book Festival 2025: uHlanga 10 Year Celebration, 6 September 2025 (with Athambile Masola, Maneo Mohale, Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal, Mthunzikazi Mbungwana and Manthipe Moila)

  • Gothenberg Book Fair/Bokmassan 2022:

  • Fiction reading of “Section 22”, Desperate Literature Award event, Burley Fisher Books, London, 21 November 2021 (with Paige Cowan-Hall)

  • Poetry in McGregor 2019: uHlanga reading, September 2019 (with Helen Moffett, Megan Ross and Francine Simon)

  • Poetry reading at Exclusive Books Cavendish Square, Cape Town, 11 February 2018 (with Rosa Lyster and Francine Simon)

  • Poetry reading at SA Book Fair, Newtown, Johannesburg, 8 September 2017 (with Phillippa Yaa de Villiers and Koleka Putuma)

  • Poetry reading from the myth of this is that we’re all in this together, Poetry in McGregor, McGregor, 26 August 2017

  • Fiction reading on radio, from “Smaller”, Writers Project of Ghana on Citi FM, Accra, 18 June 2017 (with Martin Egblewogbe)

  • Fiction reading on radio, from “Athlone Towers”, 702 Radio Breakfast Show, Johannesburg, 29 April 2017

  • Poetry in McGregor 2016: “biography” performance, 28 August 2016

  • Poetry reading at David Krut Projects, Cape Town, 20 April 2016 (with Genna Gardini)