ZUKISWA WANNER
Writer, Editor, Curator
Fiction | Nonfiction

Zukiswa Wanner is a South African journalist, novelist and editor born in Zambia and now based in Kenya. Since 2006, when she published her first book, her novels have been shortlisted for awards including the South African Literary Awards (SALA) and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. In 2015, she won the K Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award for London Cape Town Joburg (2014). In 2014 Wanner was named on the Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define trends in African literature. She curated the Pan-African virtual literary festival Afrolit Sans Frontières which had over 60 writers. In 2020 she was awarded the Goethe Medal alongside Ian McEwan and Elvira Espejo Ayca, making Wanner the first African woman to win the award. She has facilitated various workshops including Caine Prize, Afro Young Adult, Writivism Workshop, Femrite, Kabafest, Bridge Books, among others.