Kopano Matlwa won the 2006/2007 European Union Award for her first novel, Coconut, which went on to become a bestseller, and subsequently jointly won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa in 2010. Her following novels, Spilt Milk and Period Pain, were also published to great acclaim, with Period Pain shortlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize. Between them her novels have been translated to close to a dozen languages. Her latest novel, Bosadi, was published in late 2025.
When she is not writing, Kopano works as a public health physician and is passionate about ensuring all people, especially the most disadvantaged, have a fair shot at living a healthy and fulfilling life. She holds a medical degree from the University of Cape Town, a Master’s in Global Health Science and DPhil (PhD) in Population Health, both from Oxford University, where she attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Kopano lives in Johannesburg with her husband and three children.
