Songeziwe Mahlangu was born in Alice in 1985. He matriculated from Dale College, in King William’s Town, and went on to do a business science degree at the University of Cape Town. He returned to university to do a Masters degree in Creative Writing at Rhodes, Grahamstown, in 2011. Penumbra is the end result of that degree and his first novel. Songeziwe currently lives in East London and works at a large accountancy firm.