Sue Nyathi is a Zimbabwean author known for her work in fiction, including The Gold Diggers (2018) and A Family Affair (2020). She has edited the nonfiction anthology When Secrets Become Stories: Women Speak Out (2021) and co-wrote Positively Me (2024) with Nozibele Mayaba. Nyathi is also a professional analyst.
Sue Nyathi was born Sukoluhle Nyathi in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Her name, Sukoluhle, means 'beautiful day' in Ndebele/Zulu. She attended Tennyson Primary School and Carmel School, where she discovered her passion for writing at the age of ten. "I would cut out pictures from magazines and write little excerpts about the men and women in the pictures," she recalls.
Nyathi attended Girls College for her secondary education, where her writing interest deepened. At thirteen, she wrote her first novel, Crazy Over You, inspired by the Sweet Valley High series. Throughout high school, she wrote poetry and won several awards in poetry competitions.
When Nyathi completed her Cambridge A-levels, she wanted to study journalism, but at the time, such a degree wasn't available in Zimbabwe. Instead, she studied finance at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST). She later earned an MA in finance and investment from the same institution. Despite her career in finance, she continued to pursue her creative writing, often writing after hours. Nyathi also contributed to the Sunday Mail's 'Steaming Off' column, which she compares to "Carrie Jones' blog in 'Sex and the City'.
In 2008, Nyathi moved to Johannesburg, South Africa. It coincided with the journey taken by the characters in her novel The Gold Diggers. Encouraged by the vibrant literary and publishing industry in South Africa, she pursued her dream of getting published. Her debut novel, The Polygamist, was self-published in 2012 after numerous attempts to secure a mainstream publisher.
Nyathi's second novel, The Gold Diggers (2018), received significant literary acclaim. It was longlisted for the 2019 Barry Ronge Fiction Prize and the 2020 Dublin Literary Award. The Gold Diggers has also been optioned for a film adaptation. In 2020, she will publish A Family Affair, a story that exquisitely captures the complexities of family, culture, and the societal constructs surrounding women.
In addition to her novels, Nyathi ventured into scriptwriting during her maternity leave. She contributed to the TV dramas Matatiele (2015) and Bone of My Bones (2016).
Nyathi has also contributed to anthologies such as Black Tax: A Burden or Ubuntu (2019) and Hair: Unpicking and Weaving Stories of Identity (2019). She narrated a children's novel, Drawing Pains (2019), for the Hollard Kagoya Bana #BetterFutures Child Literacy Campaign.
Sue Nyathi still resides in Johannesburg.
Photo credit: suenyathi.co.za
