Unathi Magubeni

Unathi Magubeni’s debut novel, Nwelezelanga, The Star Child (BlackBird Books) was published in South Africa in 2016 and was long-listed for the 2016 Etisalat Prize for Literature and the 2017 Sunday Times Fiction Prize. A South African bestseller, the novel was chosen for the ‘English Book Review Category’ in the 2017 National Book Week for Nelson Mandela Bay schools and was also chosen for the 2019 National Funda Mzantsi Championship, organized by the National Library of South Africa. Unathi was selected as the 2019 Eastern Cape National Book Week Ambassador. His work encourages reading and writing in different schools in the rural heartland of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Unathi is one of the founding directors of the Novulakuvaliwe Library, a community library based in the village of Gwexitaba. The library seeks to be the centre for knowledge to uplift, develop and empower the rural community.