Career
Spilt Milk made the long list for the 2011 Sunday Times Fiction Prize. Matlwa is influenced by her youth when writing. She was nine or ten years old in 1994 when Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa, and she told National Public Radio that she remembers it as an "exciting time": "We were the "Rainbow Nation," and kind of the "golden children" of Africa." As she grew up, however, she says that sense of hope and newness fell away to the reality of a corruptible government.
She is also a physician, who wrote her first novel, Coconut, while completing her medical degree.
Matlwa has been cited as the emerging voice of a new generation of South African writers, dealing with issues such as race, poverty and gender. Coconut has been noted for its exploration of women"s appearance, including the political aspect of black women"s hair.
