Riana Scheepers was born on 9 December 1957, at Vryheid in Natal. She matriculated from Vryheid High School in 1975 and studied at the University of the Orange Free State in Bloemfontein (BA in Communications, BA hons in Afrikaans en Dutch and MA in Afrikaans (1987), all cum laude). In 1997 she obtained a Ph D in Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of Cape Town with the thesis: Koos Prinsloo: Die skrywer en sy geskryfdes, 1998.