Deborah Levy is a South African novelist, playwright, and poet. Born on August 6, 1959, she initially concentrated on writing for the theatre, with her plays being staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company, before focusing on prose fiction. Her early novels include Beautiful Mutants, Swallowing Geography, and Billy & Girl. More recent works include the Booker-shortlisted novels Swimming Home and Hot Milk, as well as the Booker-longlisted The Man Who Saw Everything, and the short-story collection Black Vodka.

Levy trained at Dartington College of Arts and left in 1981 to write a number of plays acclaimed for their "intellectual rigour, poetic fantasy and visual imagination". Some of her notable plays include PAX, HERESIES for the Royal Shakespeare Company, CLAM, CALL BLUE JANE, SHINY NYLON, HONEY BABY, MIDDLE ENGLAND, PUSHING THE PRINCE INTO DENMARK, and MACBETH-FALSE MEMORIES, some of which are published in LEVY: PLAYS 1 by Methuen.

Deborah published her first novel BEAUTIFUL MUTANTS at the age of 27, and the experience of not having to give her words to a director, actors, and designer to interpret was so exhilarating that she continued to write more novels.