Litnet

Rushdiyah Narker grew up in Lansdowne, Cape Town, and started writing when she realised it was the one place where her emotions finally made sense. She began with poetry, but once she discovered short stories, her world and her writing opened up.

She graduated from UCT at 41 with a degree in English literature and anthropology, a combination that deepened her love for fiction while teaching her how research and storytelling can work together.

She has always been drawn to romance and slice-of-life stories – the quiet moments, the messy feelings, the characters trying to understand who they are. She’s just as fascinated by the silences and taboos within the Muslim community, and many of her characters wrestle with these tensions in their inner worlds and relationships.

These interests shaped her debut novel, Some unspoken thing, a young adult friends-to-lovers romance set in Cape Town.

She’s currently working on her second novel, a stand-alone sequel following Gadija as she learns about herself, unpacks her hyperfixations, navigates colourism in the Muslim community, and discovers what it really means to use her voice, all set in the early 2000s.