Rushdiyah Narker

Rushdiyah Narker is a Cape Town-based author who drafts stories that focus on love, culture, and identity. Growing up surrounded by her parents, helping with wedding planning and having worked as an entrepreneur in the wedding industry for over 10 years, she’s always been drawn to the stories that unfold around her. While pursuing a master’s degree in social anthropology, she discovered a passion for writing about her community through fiction. She writes to bring these voices to life, drawing on their lived narratives and sometimes adding a touch of other worlds to her stories.

She is the winner of the SFFSA NOVA 2025 competition, a 2025 Komadagga Short Story Resident and the founder of Wordsmiths Guild Writing Group. When she’s not writing or studying, she’s living her own friends to lovers’ story with her husband, four daughters and their five cats.