Makhosazana Xaba (born 10 July 1957) is a South African poet and short-story writer. She trained as a nurse and has worked a women's health specialist in

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

, as well as writing on gender and health. She is Associate Professor of Practice in the Faculty of Humanities at the

University of Johannesburg The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg came into existence on 1 January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the Te ...

Biography

Makhosazana (Khosi) Xaba was born in

Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal Greytown is a town situated on the banks of a tributary of the Umvoti River in a richly fertile timber-producing area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. History Greytown was established in the 1850s and named after the governor of the Cape Colony S ...

, South Africa, to Glenrose Nomvula Mbatha and Rueben Bejanmin Xaba, the second of five children."A Brief Biography of Makhosazana Xaba"
Art for Humanity, 31 August 2011. She has an MA degree in creative writing from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

(Wits University) and is working on a biography of

Noni Jabavu Helen Nontando (Noni) Jabavu (20 August 1919 – 19 June 2008) was a South African writer and journalist, one of the first African women to pursue a successful literary career and the first black South African woman to publish books of autobiogr ...

. Xaba won the Deon Hofmeyr Award for Creative Writing (2005) for her unpublished short story "Running". Her poems have appeared in publications including ''Timbila'', ''

Sister Namibia Sister Namibia, formerly known as the Sister Namibia Collective, is a feminist nonpartisan non-governmental organization (NGO) located in Windhoek, Namibia. The organization was established in 1989 on the eve of the Namibia's independence from Sout ...

'', ''Botsotso, South African Writing'', ''Green Dragon'' and ''Echoes'', and have been collected in ''These Hands'' (2005) and ''Tongues of Their Mothers'' (2008). A book of her short stories, ''Running and Other Stories'', was published in 2013, and won the 2014

Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer (20 November 192313 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writin ...

South African Literary Awards The South African Literary Awards (SALA) have been awarded annually since 2005 to exceptional South African writers. They "pay tribute to South African writers who have distinguished themselves as ground-breaking producers and creators of litera ...

Short Story Award. Xaba is editor of the 2026 anthology ''Like the Untouchable Wind: An Anthology of Poems'', about "the life, experience and visions of African lesbians". She is also a contributor to the 2019 anthology ''

New Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, ...

'', edited by

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let' ...

. With Athambile Masola, Xaba introduced the book ''Noni Jabavu: A Stranger at Home'', a collection of Jabavu's ''

Daily Dispatch The ''Daily Dispatch'' is a South African newspaper published in East London in the province of Eastern Cape. The weekend edition is titled ''Saturday Dispatch''. Founded in 1872 as the ''East London Dispatch'', the ''Daily Dispatch'' is the Ea ...

'' columns, published in 2023.

Works

*''These Hands: Poems''. Timbila Poetry Project, Elim Hospital, Limpopo Province, 2005. Poetry. . *''Tongues of Their Mothers''. Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008. Poetry. . *''Running and Other Stories''. Cape Town: Modjaji Books, 2013. Fiction. . *''Like the Untouchable Wind: An Anthology of Poems'' (editor). Harare: MaThoko's Books, 2016. Poetry anthology. . *''The Alkalinity of Bottled Water''. Botsotso Publishing, 2019. Poetry.

References

*Mzamisa, Palesa (2008). "New voices", ''Wordsetc'', Third Quarter, pp. 31–36. Living people 1957 births 21st-century short story writers 21st-century South African poets 21st-century South African women writers Lambda Literary Award winners People from Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal South African women academics South African short story writers South African women poets South African women short story writers Academic staff of the University of Johannesburg University of the Witwatersrand alumni Women anthologists {{SouthAfrica-poet-stub