John Maxwell Coetzee AC FRSL OMG (born February 9, 1940) is a South African and Australian writer, essayist, linguist, and translator. He received the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature and is one of the most highly praised and honored authors in the English language. He has won the Booker Prize twice, the CNA Literary Award three times, the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina étranger, and The Irish Times International Fiction Prize. He has also received many other awards and honorary doctorates.

In 2002, Coetzee moved to Australia and became an Australian citizen in 2006. He currently lives in Adelaide, South Australia. He supports the J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at the University of Adelaide. His most recently published book is The Pole and Other Stories (2023).

Early life and education

Coetzee was born on February 9, 1940, in Cape Town, Cape Province, Union of South Africa, to Afrikaner parents. His father, Zacharias Coetzee, sometimes worked as a lawyer and government employee. His mother, Vera Coetzee (née Wehmeyer), was a schoolteacher. Zacharias was often away from home and joined the army during World War II to avoid being charged with a crime. Vera and her children received help from family members. At home, the family mostly spoke English, but Coetzee used Afrikaans when talking to relatives.

Coetzee’s ancestors include 17th-century Dutch settlers from his father’s side and Dutch, German, and Polish immigrants from his mother’s side. His mother’s grandfather was a Pole named Balcer Dubiel, born in 1844 in the village of Czarnylas (Schwarzwald), which was part of Poland at the time but later controlled by Prussia. Because of his heritage, Coetzee became deeply interested in Polish literature and culture, which influenced his 2022 novel The Pole.

Coetzee grew up in Cape Town and in Worcester, a town in the Cape Province (now part of the Western Cape). His life in these places is described in his 1997 book Boyhood, which is a fictionalized version of his early years. When he was eight, his family moved to Worcester after his father lost his government job. He attended St. Joseph’s College, a Catholic school in Rondebosch, a suburb of Cape Town. He studied mathematics and English at the University of Cape Town (UCT), earning a Bachelor of Arts with honors in English in 1960 and a Bachelor of Arts with honors in mathematics in 1961.

In 1962, Coetzee moved to the United Kingdom and worked as a computer programmer for IBM in London and for ICT (International Computers and Tabulators) in Bracknell, staying there until 1965. His time in England is described in Youth (2002), the second part of his fictionalized memoirs.

In 1963, the University of Cape Town gave Coetzee a Master of Arts degree for his thesis titled The Works of Ford Madox Ford with Particular Reference to the Novels.

Academia

In 1965, Coetzee moved to the University of Texas at Austin in the United States. He took classes in bibliography and Old English. While there, he taught students and wrote a paper about the structure of the Nama, Malay, and Dutch languages for a linguist named Archibald A. Hill, who also worked at the university. His PhD dissertation used a computer to analyze the writing style of Samuel Beckett’s English prose. He left Texas in 1968 and received his doctorate in 1969.

In 1968, Coetzee began teaching English literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He remained there until 1971 and started his first novel, Dusklands, during this time.

As early as 1968, Coetzee tried to move permanently to the United States. This effort failed, partly because he participated in protests against the Vietnam War. In March 1970, he joined 45 other faculty members in occupying Hayes Hall at the university. They were arrested for entering the building without permission, but the charges were dismissed in 1971.

Coetzee worked at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought until 2003.

In 1972, Coetzee returned to South Africa and became a lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Cape Town. He later advanced to senior lecturer, associate professor, and Professor of General Literature in 1984. In 1994, he became Arderne Professor in English, and in 1999, he was named Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Humanities. After retiring in 2002, he received emeritus status.

After moving to Adelaide, Australia, Coetzee was named an honorary research fellow at the University of Adelaide’s English Department. His partner, Dorothy Driver, is also a professor at the university. As of November 2023, Coetzee holds the title of University Professorial Research Fellow in the School of Humanities.

Writing career

Coetzee's first novel was Dusklands (1974), and he has written a new novel every three years since then. He has also written books about his own life, short stories, translations from Dutch and Afrikaans, and many essays and critical writings. His most recent work is The Pole and Other Stories (2023). He has not written a novel set in South Africa since 2009.

In 2009, James Meek wrote in The Guardian: "Since Disgrace, Coetzee's writing has changed. He has moved away from stories that focus on real life toward other forms, such as essays, arguments, and personal reflections, or a mix of these in a fictional setting. He now seems less interested in telling stories and more focused on sharing a personal conversation he has with himself, using different characters to represent different parts of his personality." These characters include the magistrate in Waiting for the Barbarians and David Lurie in Disgrace, a female character named Elizabeth Costello, who appears in several of his books, and Coetzee himself, writing about his own life. Meek also noted that Coetzee is very critical of the characters who represent him in his stories.

In the 2010s, Coetzee became interested in Argentine literature. His trilogy of novels—The Childhood of Jesus, The Schooldays of Jesus, and The Death of Jesus—show his thoughts about language. He once said, "I do not like how English is taking over the world. I do not like the pride this creates in people who speak English. Therefore, I do what I can to stop English from being the dominant language." All three books were translated into Spanish, with the last one published in Spanish first. During this time, Coetzee also joined the Literatures of the South project in 2015.

The Pole was first published in Spanish under the title El polaco in Argentina in 2022, and then in English the following year.

Awards, recognition, appearances

Coetzee is a highly respected and honored writer who writes in the English language. He has received many awards during his career, even though he is known for not attending award ceremonies.

Coetzee was the first author to win the Booker Prize twice: once for Life & Times of Michael K in 1983 and again for Disgrace in 1999. By 2020, three other authors had also won the Booker Prize twice: Peter Carey, Hilary Mantel, and Margaret Atwood.

Summertime, a book longlisted for the 2009 Booker Prize, was an early favorite to win Coetzee a third Booker Prize. It made the shortlist but lost to Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Coetzee was also longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2003 for Elizabeth Costello and in 2005 for Slow Man.

The Schooldays of Jesus, a book that follows The Childhood of Jesus (2013), was longlisted for the 2016 Booker Prize.

On October 2, 2003, the Swedish Academy announced that Coetzee had been chosen to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. This made him the fourth African writer and the second South African to win the prize, after Nadine Gordimer. The Swedish Academy said Coetzee’s work "portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider" in many ways. The press release also praised his "well-crafted writing, meaningful dialogue, and deep thinking," especially the moral themes in his stories. The ceremony was held in Stockholm on December 10, 2003.

Coetzee has won South Africa’s CNA Literary Award three times: in 1977, 1980, and 1983. His book Waiting for the Barbarians won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Age of Iron was named the Sunday Express Book of the Year, and The Master of Petersburg won the Irish Times International Fiction Prize in 1995. He also won the French Prix Femina étranger and two Commonwealth Writers’ Prizes for the African region: one for Master of St Petersburg in 1995 and another for Disgrace in 2000 (the latter was given to him by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace). He also received the 1987 Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society and the 1998 Lannan Literary Award for Fiction.

In 1984, Coetzee received an Honorary Fellow Award from the University of Cape Town. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1988. In 2001, he won the Outstanding Alumnus award from the University of Texas. In 2004, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

On September 27, 2005, the South African government gave Coetzee the Order of Mapungubwe (gold class) for his "exceptional contribution to literature and for helping put South Africa on the world stage." In 2006, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. He has honorary doctorates from many universities, including The American University of Paris (2010), the University of Adelaide (2005), La Trobe University, the University of Natal (1996), the University of Oxford, Rhodes University, the State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of Strathclyde, the University of Technology, Sydney, the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, and the Universidad Iberoamericana.

In 2013, Richard Poplak of the Daily Maverick called Coetzee "inarguably the most celebrated and decorated living English-language author."

On June 9, 2025, Coetzee was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

Coetzee first visited Adelaide in 1996 when he was invited to speak at Adelaide Writers’ Week. He returned to the festival in 2004, 2010 (when he introduced Geoff Dyer), and 2019 (when he introduced Marlene van Niekerk).

In 2004, the Lord Mayor of Adelaide gave Coetzee the keys to the city.

In 2010, Coetzee was named an international ambassador for Adelaide Writers’ Week, along with American novelist Susanna Moore and English poet Michael Hulse.

Coetzee is the patron of the J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice (JMCCCP), a research center and cultural hub created at the University of Adelaide in 2015. The center offers workshops to help new and experienced writers, scholars, and musicians. Coetzee’s work inspires people to think about social and political issues and music.

In November 2014, a three-day academic conference titled "JM Coetzee in the World" was held in Adelaide. It was described as "the culmination of an enormous collaborative effort" and "a reflection of the deep esteem in which John Coetzee is held by Australian academia."

From November 9 to 10, 2023, the University of Adelaide organized a celebration of Nobel Prize in Literature anniversaries, marking Coetzee’s 2003 win and Patrick White’s 1973 win. Events included readings by Coetzee, Christos Tsiolkas, Patrick Flanery, Helen Garner, Brian Castro, and others in the Barr Smith Library, music by Anna Goldsworthy and Paul Grabowsky, and film screenings of Disgrace and The Eye of the Storm, with talks by the filmmakers at the Palace Nova Eastend Cinema.

Views

According to Fred Pfeil, Coetzee, André Brink, and Breyten Breytenbach were important figures in the anti-apartheid movement within Afrikaner literature. In 1987, when Coetzee accepted the Jerusalem Prize, he discussed how art in South Africa was limited by the country’s social structures, which caused "deformed and stunted relations between human beings" and "a deformed and stunted inner life." He described South African literature as "a literature in bondage" and said it was "exactly the kind of literature you would expect people to write from prison." He urged the South African government to end its apartheid policy. Scholar Isidore Diala noted that Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, and Brink were "three of South Africa's most distinguished white writers" who supported anti-apartheid efforts.

Some people believe Coetzee’s 1999 novel Disgrace represents South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). When asked about the TRC, Coetzee said it was unusual because it was based on Christian teachings, which few South Africans supported. He said only time would show what the TRC achieved.

After becoming an Australian citizen, Coetzee said he did not leave South Africa but moved to Australia because he was drawn to its people, land, and the city of Adelaide. He cited South Africa’s weak crime policies as a reason for moving, which led to a disagreement with Thabo Mbeki, who said, "South Africa is not only a place of rape," referencing Coetzee’s book Disgrace. In 1999, the African National Congress criticized Disgrace for showing racist stereotypes. When Coetzee won the Nobel Prize, Mbeki congratulated him on behalf of South Africa and Africa.

Coetzee has not clearly stated his political views or openly criticized apartheid, though his work often addresses how language supports political and social systems. Nadine Gordimer said Coetzee avoided political solutions, and he has been praised for condemning racism but criticized for not directly opposing apartheid.

In Doubling the Point, Coetzee wrote about his political views in the third person, saying he avoided the right-wing during his student years because of his childhood experiences with cruelty. He supported left-wing ideas but was turned off by political language. In an interview, he said the modern left has no meaningful language or direction.

In February 2016, Coetzee signed a letter to Australia’s leaders criticizing the detention of asylum seekers. In May 2016, he spoke at the Palestine Festival of Literature, saying the word "apartheid" was not useful for describing the situation in Palestine. He described a system of segregation in Jerusalem and the West Bank based on religion and ethnicity.

In 2026, Coetzee refused to attend the Jerusalem Writers Festival because of Israel’s actions in Gaza, which he called a "genocidal campaign." He said many Israelis supported these actions, making it hard for the country’s intellectual community to avoid blame for the violence.

In 2005, Coetzee compared modern anti-terrorism laws to South Africa’s apartheid laws, saying they were similar in how they ignored the rule of law. His 2007 book Diary of a Bad Year reflects concerns about policies by leaders like John Howard and George W. Bush.

In recent years, Coetzee has spoken out against cruelty to animals. In 2007, he criticized the use of animals in scientific research at Trinity College Dublin, calling it "absurd" and "disgraceful." He became a patron of Voiceless, an Australian animal rights group, and his books like The Lives of Animals and Disgrace address animal welfare. He is a vegetarian.

Personal life

Coetzee played an important role in starting Oak Tree Press's First Chapter Series in 2006. This series creates special, signed books by famous writers to help children and orphans affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa.

Coetzee has talked about other writers who, like him, tried to go beyond their own cultural and historical backgrounds. These writers include Rainer Maria Rilke, Jorge Luis Borges, Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Zbigniew Herbert. These writers often lived in different countries or wrote in languages other than their own. Coetzee once said, "As a child, as a young man, as a student, I had no doubt that learning English was helping me escape the limited view of the Afrikaner." He also said, "I can speak and write English well, but I feel more and more like someone who is not a native speaker." He has written about his experience of being an outsider, such as when he lived in London as a colonial, which he describes in his book Youth. Some characters in his novels are also outsiders.

On March 6, 2006, Coetzee became an Australian citizen. Some people believe he intentionally chose to embrace and highlight his Australian identity.

Coetzee usually avoids talking about himself or his work, but he has written about his life in several books (Boyhood, Youth, and Summertime). He is often described as private and avoids public attention. He did not collect his two Booker Prize awards in person. In 1999, the South African writer Rian Malan wrote in an article that Coetzee is "a man of almost monkish self-discipline and dedication" and claimed, based on rumors, that Coetzee rarely laughed or spoke. When asked about these comments in an email, Coetzee replied, "I have met Rian Malan only once in my life. He does not know me and is not qualified to talk about my character."

Coetzee married Philippa Jubber in 1963. They divorced in 1980. They had two children: a son named Nicolas and a daughter named Gisela. Nicolas died in 1989 at age 23 after falling from the balcony of his Johannesburg apartment.

Coetzee's younger brother, David Coetzee, who was a journalist, died in 2010.

His partner, Dorothy Driver, is a teacher and researcher at the University of Adelaide.