Born in Nairobi, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor holds an MPhil in Creative Writing from the University of Queensland. She served as the executive director of the Zanzibar International Film Festival, where she established its first literary forum. Her novella The Weight of Whispers won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2003, and her debut novel Dust (2014, shortlisted for the Folio Prize) has been translated into multiple languages. Her second novel, The Dragonfly Sea (2019), examines historical and contemporary China-East Africa relations through the intimate lives of Swahili Sea characters. A speaker and cultural advocate, Owuor has been recognised with several awards, including Kenya's Head of State Commendation (2016).

In 2018/19, Owuor was a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and, later, at the Institute d’études avancées de Nantes. She is working with African producers to train and establish 'writing rooms' to refine African film story development, and is a founder-member of The Elephant, Eastern Africa's foremost digital newspaper. Additionally, she has participated in initiatives fostering East Africa-Asia cultural discourses and co-founded the Macondo Literary Festival. Owuor was Artist in Residence at the Cluster in 2020, and now serves as a member of its International Advisory Board.