Phaswane Mpe (10 September 1970 – 12 December 2004) was a South African poet and novelist. He was educated at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was a lecturer in African literature. He did his master's degree in publishing at Oxford Brookes University in 1998. His debut novel, Welcome to Our Hillbrow, was published in 2001. A collection of short stories and poems, Brooding Clouds, was published posthumously in 2008.
Mpe was born in the northern city of Polokwane in Tiragalong, and moved to Johannesburg at the age of 19 to attend university,
His book Welcome to Our Hillbrow, and short stories in Brooding Clouds have autobiographical information.