Mia Couto was born in 1955 in Beira, Sofala province, Mozambique. He lived in this city until 17, when he went to Lourenço Marques to study Medicine. He interrupted the course to start a journalistic career until 1985.
On his initiative, he returned to the University to study biology, finishing his course in 1989; he has since worked as a biologist in Mozambique.
He has published more than 30 books that are translated and edited in thirty different countries. His books cover many genres, from romance to poetry, short stories, and children's books. He has received
dozens of awards in his career, including - twice - the National Prize for Literature, the Camões Prize and the Neustadt Prize, considered the American Nobel Prize. In 2016, he was a finalist at one of the most prestigious international awards, the Man Booker Prize. An international jury meeting in Zimbabwe considered his novel Terra Sonâmbula one of the 10 best African books of the Twentieth century. He is a member of the
Brazilian Academy of Letters. In 2020, his trilogy "As Areas do Imperator" won the prestigious Jan Michalski Literature Prize internationally. In January 2021, he was also awarded the Albert Bernard Prize in France.
He is married to Patrícia Silva and has three children living and working in Maputo.