Niq Mhlongo is a Sowetan-born writer, editor, and a travel journalist who graduated from Wits University with a BA degree in 1997. He has written four novels – Dog Eat Dog (2004), After Tears (2007), Way Back Home (2013), Paradise in Gaza (2020) – and a collection of short stories, Affluenza (2016), and Soweto, Under the Apricot Tree (2018). In 2019 he edited a bestselling collection of essays called Black Tax, Burden or Ubuntu. He also edited a collection of stories about Johannesburg called Joburg Noir, published by Jacana Media in 2020. His novel Dog Eat Dog won the Spanish Literary Award called MAR DER LETRAS INTENECIONALE in 2006. His collection of short stories, Soweto Under The Apricot Tree won the HERMAN CHARLES BOSMAN LITERARY PRIZE FOR ENGLISH FICTION and the NADINE GORDIMER SHORT-STORY AWARD in 2019.