Mphuthumi Ntabeni writes for national and international publications. Trained in the built environment, he is also passionate about literature, history, and philosophy. His debut novel, The Broken River Tent, won the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize (2019) and was longlisted for the Sunday Times Literary Prize the same year; it has been published in North America by Rising Action Publishing. His second novel, The Wanderers (2021), was longlisted for the Sunday Times Literary Prize in 2022 and published in North America by Catalyst Press. He is currently working on Book II of The River People trilogy, which explores the early history of the Eastern Cape during the Frontier Wars from the amaXhosa perspective.