BIO

Refiloe is the best-selling and award-winning author of How many ways can you say hello? and How many ways can you say goodbye? (published by Penguin Random House South Africa); Yes Yanga! (Yheke Yanga! in isiXhosa), We Are One, Know My Name, You Are Loved and Part of a Team (published by Pan Macmillan South Africa).

Her awards include a South African Literary Award (Literary Translators Award for Yheke Yanga! 2020) and South African Book Awards (Overall Winner and Children’s Category Winner 2021 for How many ways can you say hello?). We Are One is included in the 2022 IBBY Honour List (International Board on Books for Young People) and was awarded the 2022 IBBY SA Picture Book Award. Simunye, the isiZulu translation of We Are One, was awarded a Gold Pendoring in Publication Design in 2021. The World Publication Rights of We Are One were also sold to Amazon Publishing in the USA (titled I AM YOU: A Book about Ubuntu), and the Portuguese Translation Rights were sold to Editora Viajante do Tempo in Brazil (titled Ubuntu: Nos Somos Um). The sales were brokered by the African Literacy Agency.

Refiloe is passionate about writing stories that bring out the best in the human spirit – stories where children can identify and celebrate themselves.