Best known for her Hlomu series – and for writing the novelisation of the 2018 film Zulu Wedding – Busani-Dube is a self-published novelist based in Johannesburg. She describes her books as being about “broken men and the women who try to fix them”, and when asked what inspires here books, she has said: “People, just people and their realities.” Both of which, you’ll no doubt agree, are refreshingly pithy responses.
By and large, her books are positioned somewhat in defiance of the white-washed, absurdly photogenic and straightforward romance novel. Her characters are realistic and damaged, they come with baggage and they come with imperfection and insecurity – just like the rest of us. Without fail, Busani-Dube’s books come directly from the experience of being a black woman in South Africa – they are stories that properly reflect their readers.
Busani-Dube is a journalist by trade. Her decision to self-publish was made without even approaching publishing houses. She has said that she felt publishers might not understand the stories she was telling, and that she did not want to have to compromise her writing. Indeed, it is unclear how publishers might have taken to the township-centric characters and tales from the Hlomu series but, fortunately, we don’t have to worry about it. The fourth instalment in the series, Iqunga, is out now.
Dudu Busani Dube is a well-known writer and journalist in South Africa. She is the author and self-publisher of three books: Hlomu The Wife, Zandile The Resolute and Naledi His Love. She has also been working on another book Zulu Wedding which is based on a movie. She covers a number of high-profile court cases. She has also participated in two anthologies: Black Tax: Burden Or Ubuntu published by Jonathan Ball in 2019, and The Lockdown Collection
Ayanda Xaba, originally from Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal, started writing when she was ten years old. From that moment she has grown her craft by obtaining writing qualifications (Creative Writing Certificate from Intec College and Journalism Diploma from Icesa Education) and attending numerous workshops because she believes writing is a talent that needs to be continuously nurtured.
In high school, she was part of a writer's group called Dancing Pencils and from there came numerous anthologies. Her first published book came when she was sixteen years of age with Umsinsi Press, titled 'The EZ Gang'. Ayanda is a contributor on Reader's Cafe Africa where many of her short stories and poems are published. She also works as a freelance editor and proofreader. Her work has also appeared on Drum magazine, Kalahari Review, and Reader's Cafe Africa. She is also an inaugural winner of the Gamaphile writers' competition and the 2021 winner of the Best English Novel by a Female Author at the Books Behind Awards.
Ayanda is an activist for women's rights who is authentic and unapologetic in her storytelling. She contributed in the anthology 'When Secrets Become Stories' edited by Sue Nyathi. She has self-published five books; 'ULala: The Journey of Discovery', 'The Maiden & The Bear', Through Her Eyes, SCARRED and DAMNED.
Nozizwe is the author of two novels. Happiness is a Four-Letter Word (2010) which won the Best First Book category (Africa region) in the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2011 and 2011 M-Net Literary Award in the Film Category and was shortlisted for the 2011 Booksellers Choice Award and Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English Fiction (2011). The book was adapted into a film with the same title and released at the South African box office in 2016. The Ones with Purpose (2018) shortlisted for the following South African literary prizes: Sunday Times Literary Awards Barry Ronge Fiction Prize 2019, Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English Fiction 2019, the University of Johannesburg Prize for South African Writing in English 2019 and long listed for the International Dublin Literary Prize 2020.
Nozizwe is a member of the Johannesburg Review of Books Editorial Advisory Panel and PEN South Africa. She has recently established The Happiness Literary Foundation and is one of the three founders of Writers’ Inc. (together with Angela Makholwa and Zukiswa Wanner) supporting writers and promoting creative writing across the continent. Nozizwe holds a MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia (UEA). She is working on translating The Ones with Purpose to isiZulu, an untitled novella and collection of short stories.