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 is a PhD candidate in English and Creative Writing at Georgia State University.

Education

MFA - Creative Writing & Literature | University of Houston

BA - Political Science & Sociology | NYU

Tomás Q. Morín

Faculty, MFA in Writing [poetry]

Samuel Kọ́láwọlé

Faculty, MFA in Writing [fiction]

Harrison Candelaria Fletcher

Faculty, MFA in Writing [CNF]

Tarfia Faizullah

Faculty, MFA in Writing [poetry]

Leslie Ullman

Faculty, MFA in Writing [poetry]

David Wojahn

Faculty, MFA in Writing [poetry]; Postgraduate Writers' Conference