January 5, 1938 - May 28, 2025
Kenyan novelist, playwright, short story writer, essayist and academic
Author of "Weep Not Child" (for which he won the Unesco first prize in 1964), "Wizard of the Crow" (for which he was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Black Literature in 2007), "In the House of the Interpreter" (for which he was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography in 2012) and "The Perfect Nine" (for which he was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2021)
Won the East Africa Novel Prize in 1963
Won the Zora Neale Hurston - Paul Robeson Award in 1993
Won the Nonino International Prize for Literature in 2001
Was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2009
Born James Ngugi