Speaker spotlight: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

Our full list of Festival authors and speakers will go live mid-March, but to make the wait a bit less daunting, here’s one author you won’t want to miss in April.

Kenyan-born Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was dubbed by The Washington Post as “the writer the world needs right now.” Before coming to the United States, Thiong’o was imprisoned by his government for his subversive artistic endeavors. He’s now often heralded as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

He has written “A Grain of Wheat,” “Weep Not, Child,” “Petals of Blood,” “Birth of a Dream Weaver,” and his new book, “Wrestling with the Devil.” He has been nominated for, among other honors, the Man Booker International Prize and is currently Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.