She is the author of Zoo City, a hardboiled thriller about crime, magic, the music industry, refugees and redemption set in a re-imagined Johannesburg, and Moxyland, a speculative science fiction novel set in a future Cape Town. Both books were first published in South Africa by Jacana Publishing and released internationally by Osprey Publishing's Angry Robot imprint.

Her first book, the non-fiction Maverick: Extraordinary Women From South Africa's Past (Oshun 2005) was long-listed for the 2006 Sunday Times Alan Paton Award.

She has published short stories in several anthologies including Home Away (Zebra 2010), Touch: Stories of Contact (Zebra 2009), Open: Erotic Stories from South African Women Writers

(Oshun 2008), ''FAB'' (Umuzi 2007), ''African Road: New Writing from Southern Africa'' (New Africa Books 2005), ''180 Degrees: New Fiction By South African Women Writers'' (Oshun 2006), and ''Urban 03'' (New Africa Books 2005).

As a journalist, her articles have been published in a wide range of local and international magazines including The Hollywood Reporter, Nature Medicine and Colors as well as The Sunday Times Lifestyle, Marie Claire, Elle, Cosmopolitan and SL Magazine .

She won Best Columnist Western Cape in the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards in 2007 and 2008 .

As a scriptwriter for Clockwork Zoo, she was part of the development team that created South Africa's first half-hour animated TV series, The Adventures of Pax Afrika.

She was also one of the writers, together with Ben Trovato and Tumiso Tsukudu on the pilot of controversial ZA News, a Spitting Image-style satire show with puppets based on the work of South African cartoonist, Zapiro. The pilot was commissioned by the SABC but never broadcast.

• Extraordinary Women From South Africa's Past (2005)
• Moxyland (2008)
• Zoo City (2010)

Short fiction

Beukes has published short fiction in various collections:

• Urban '03 (2004)
• African Road: New Writing from South Africa (2005)
• 180 Degrees: New Fiction By South African Women Writers (2006)
• FAB (2007)
• Open: Erotic Stories from South African Women Writers (2008)
• Touch: Stories of Contact (2009)
• Home Away: 24 Hours, 24 Cities, 24 Authors (2010)