Henrietta Rose-Innes is a South African novelist and short-story writer. She was the 2008 winner of the Caine Prize

Caine Prize

The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. The £10,000 prize was founded in the United Kingdom in 2000, and was named in memory of the late Sir Michael...

 for African Writing for her speculative-fiction story "Poison".

Rose-Innes was born in 1971 in Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

, South Africa, where she is currently based. She is the author of a collection of short stories, Homing, (2011), published by Random House Struik, as well as two novels, Shark's Egg (2000)and The Rock Alphabet (2004), both published by Kwela Books. Dream Homes: Schnappschüsse und Geschichten aus Kapstadt, a collection of essays and short stories, appeared in German translation in 2008 and The Rock Alphabet has also been published in Romanian (2007). She has also compiled an anthology of South African writing, Nice Times! A Book of South African Pleasures and Delights (2006).

Rose-Innes’s short pieces have appeared in a variety of publications, including AGNI

Agni

Agni is a Hindu deity, one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods...

  and Granta

Granta

Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated, "In its blend of...

.
In 2007 she was the winner of the Southern African PEN

International PEN

PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....

 short story award; in that year she was also shortlisted for the Caine Prize.

She was a Fellow in Literature at the Akademie Schloss Solitude

Akademie Schloss Solitude

The Akademie Schloss Solitude is a foundation under public law. The main aspect of the Akademie is to promote mainly younger, particularly gifted artists by means of residency fellowships and also by organizing events and exhibitions by its residents...

, Stuttgart (2007-8) and has held residencies at the Chateau de Lavigny, Lausanne; the kunst:raum sylt quelle, Sylt; the University of Georgetown

University of Georgetown

University of Georgetown may refer to:* Georgetown University, in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.* University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana...

; the University of Cape Town

University of Cape Town

The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...

's Centre for Creative Writing; and Caldera Arts Center, Oregon. Her work has been translated into German, Arabic and Romanian.