Wanjikū Wa Ngūgī

Profile

Wanjikū Wa Ngūgī is the author of Seasons in Hippoland (Seagull Books, 2021) and The Fall of Saints (Atria Books, 2014). Her short stories and non-fiction essays have appeared in Nairobi Noir (Akashic Books, 2020), Houston Noir, (Akashic Books, 2019), New Daughters of Africa (2019), The Barelife Review (2019), St. Petersburg Review, Wasafiri Magazine, Auburn Avenue, Cunning Folk Magazine, and Chimurenga, amongst others. Her short story “Father Matheri” was runner up for best story for the Africa Book Club Magazine, 2015.

She is the former director of the Helsinki African Film Festival (HAFF). She was also a columnist for the Finnish development magazine Maailman Kuvalehti and served as a juror for the CinenAfrica Film Festival, Stockholm, Sweden, in 2011–2013. Wanjikū is the recipient of the The Bronze Panther Prize, 2014, from the Villa Karo Foundation “for greatly enhancing the mutual understanding between different cultures and reduced biases between peoples, in Helsinki, Finland.” Wanjikū has an MFA in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston and a PhD in English and Creative Writing from Georgia State University.