Jonny Steinberg is a South African author and scholar widely regarded as one of the country's most acclaimed nonfiction writers on crime, politics, and everyday life in the wake of apartheid. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, he studied at Wits University before attending Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, where he earned a doctorate in political theory and later served as Professor of African Studies. He rose to acclaim with books including Midlands, The Number, and A Man of Good Hope, works that use deeply reported personal narratives to illuminate broader currents in South African society, from prison gangs to the AIDS crisis to the immigrant experience. His 2023 book Winnie and Nelson: A Portrait of a Marriage, a sweeping account of a century of South African history told through the marriage of Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. A three-time winner of South Africa's premier nonfiction prize, the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award, and an inaugural recipient of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, he has taught at Oxford and Yale while continuing to write on African politics and history. Known for his rigorous, narrative-driven approach to nonfiction, Steinberg's work continues to shape modern writing on South Africa and inspire readers across the world.