NGŨGĨ WA THIONG’O
January 5, 1938-May 28, 2025
The New Press is deeply saddened to note the passing of our beloved author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, one of the giants of contemporary letters, at the age of 87. In a career that spanned decades and genres, Ngũgĩ’s writing engaged with issues of political courage, resistance and the condition of colonial and neocolonial Africa.
The New Press is proud to be the American publisher of five of Ngũgĩ’s books: two titles from his memoir cycle—Birth of a Dream Weaver (October 2016) and the prison memoir Wrestling with the Devil (March 2018)—as well as the renowned short story collection Minutes of Glory (March 2019), the genre-defying novel in verse The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi (October 2020), which was long listed for the International Booker Prize, and most recently the essay collection Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas (May 2025).
Diane Wachtell, The New Press’s executive director, said in a statement, “Ngũgĩ‘s classic novels, including Weep Not Child, Petals of Blood, and Wizard of the Crow—and his recent New Press titles—are all haunted by the memory of Kenya’s great war of independence. But his books and characters also explore the real dilemmas and dramas presented by the corruption and betrayal of that movement during the post-colonial period in Kenya. Birth of a Dream Weaver and Wrestling with the Devil are also enriched by the challenges, the frustrations, and the spirit of magic and awakening that comes through artistic creation. He was truly a modern master.”
Ngũgĩ was perennially tipped as a front-runner for the Nobel Prize in Literature and famously referred to his most valuable prize as “the Nobel of the heart.” In a 2019 interview for Minutes of Glory he told NPR:
“When I go to a place, and I meet a person, and they tell me, ‘Your novel or your short story impacted my life,’ that’s a very special moment when as a writer I feel: ‘My God, it was worth it.’ It’s what I call the Nobel of the heart, and I really appreciate that one,” he says. And he adds, with a laugh: “The beauty of the Nobel of the heart is that every writer can have it, yeah?”
Ngũgĩ’s books will surely impact readers for generations to come.
Read more about Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s life and career in obituaries in the New York Times, Associated Press, and The Guardian.
