SOURCE: UCI
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Distinguished Professor of English and comparative literature at UCI, is the recipient of the 2022 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature – the most prestigious career achievement award bestowed by the PEN America Literary Awards Program.
The award is conferred annually to a living author whose body of work represents the highest level of achievement in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and/or drama. It is named in honor of Vladimir Nabokov, one of the leading novelists of the 20th century, and is supplemented with a $50,000 stipend.
Ngũgĩ is an influential figure in African literature. For nearly sixty years, he has been committed to telling the stories of his native Kenya. Ngũgĩ is a UCI Medalist and recipient of 13 honorary doctorates from African, European, American and New Zealand universities. He is widely seen as a potential Nobel Prize winner. His more than three dozen books, plays, poetry and essays have been translated into more than 30 languages. At UCI, he served as the founding director of the International Center for Writing and Translation.