Dina Salústio was born on the island of Santo Antão, Cape Verde, in 1941. She has worked as a teacher, a social assistant and a journalist, in Portugal, Angola and Cape Verde.
As a writer, her first book, Mornas eram as noites (Warm were the Nights), a collection of short stories, was published in 1994, and subsequently translated into Spanish. A new short story collection, Filhos de Deus (God’s Children), was published in 2018. She has had three novels published, A Louca de Serrano (The Madwoman of Serrano) in 1998, Filhas do Vento (Daughters of the Wind) in 2009 and Veromar (See-the-Sea) in 2019. Her essay Violência contra as mulheres (Violence Against Women) was published in book form in 1999 and she has contributed to numerous short story and poetry anthologies.
She is a founding member of the Cape Verdean Writers Association and has been awarded the PEN Galicia prize for lifetime achievement.