Dominique Botha

Dominique Botha is the author of the novel False River – winner of the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize, the Eugène Marais Prize and the Jan Rabie-Rapport Prize – and the poetry collection Donkerberg/Bloodwood, winner of the Ingrid Jonker Prize.

Her most recent collection of poetic essays, The Crying Bride & Other Hallucinations, was published in 2026. In this collection of shorter writing, Botha traverses the South African landscape and far beyond, her gaze wandering from the Highveld to Europe, from family archives to hotel bars, collecting all that is profound, eccentric, humorous, and mournful.

Her work is available in Afrikaans, English, and French. Botha grew up on a farm in the Free State and now lives in the Dwarsrivier Valley outside Stellenbosch.