Zakes Mda (full names: Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda) is a South African writer, painter, composer and film maker. He commutes between South Africa and the United States of America, working as a professor of creative writing at Ohio University, as a beekeeper in the Eastern Cape, a dramaturge at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, and a director of the Southern African Multimedia AIDS Trust in Sophiatown, Johannesburg.

Zakes Mda is one of South Africa's leading novelists, in between working as a professor of creative writing at Ohio University. He wears many hats, including those of beekeeper, painter, composer and film maker. He also serves as a director of the Southern African Multimedia AIDS Trust. In addition to writing the novel The Whale Caller, Zakes also wrote the original screenplay for Zola Maseko (work in progress).

The Whale Caller was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize.

"Mda's fascinating narrative skills reveal the past as a powerful presence in the present: of his characters, and of all of us, as we live."
~Nadine Gordimer

Source:
www.whalecallerfilm.com/the-book/
www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-whale-caller