Alistair Mackay is the author of the novels It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way (Kwela; 2022), which was a Brittle Paper Notable African Book of 2022 and was longlisted for best fiction in the British Science Fiction Association Awards and the Sunday Times Literary Awards; and The Child (Kwela; 2024) which was shortlisted for the Book Lounge’s ‘Book of the Year’ for 2024; as well as the short story collection The Lucky Ones (Kwela; 2025). His short fiction has been published by Commonwealth Writers (UK), Brittle Paper (Nigeria), New Contrast (South Africa), The Kalahari Review (South Africa), Kabaka Magazine (Nigeria), and Penny (USA), as well as in the anthologies Queer Africa II (South Africa), The Other (USA), and Queer Africa: Selected Stories (UK). His story ‘Why Don’t South Africans Read Fiction’ has been translated into Dutch and was published by the Belgian literary magazine DW B in 2024.

For many years Alistair wrote a monthly humour, dating and lifestyle column for LGBTQ+ news site mambaonline, as well as a branding advice column for marklives, based on his experiences working in political communications and at a marketing strategy consultancy.

Alistair holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in New York City, and an MA in Politics from Edinburgh University in the UK. He was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, the youngest of three boys, and now lives in Cape Town with his husband and their pug, Oscar.

Mackay, incidentally, rhymes with sky.

SELECTED AWARDS

• Shortlisted: Book Lounge ‘Book of the Year’ 2024 (The Child)
• Longlisted: Sunday Times Literary Awards 2023: Best Fiction (It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way)
• Longlisted: British Science Fiction Association Award 2023 (It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way)
• Brittle Paper 100 Notable African Books 2022 (It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way)
• Longlisted, First Pages Prize 2020 (Disquiet / It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way)
• Shortlisted, Arts24 Corona Fiction Prize 2020 (Someone at the Door)
• Finalist, Lambda Literary Awards 2017, Best LGBTQ+ Anthology (Queer Africa II)