From the garden of languages,the Nectar of art

Abstract

"Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is one of the most prominent writers in the world today. Like other African intellectuals of his generation such as Wole Soyinka, J.M. Coetzee, and Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ is a versatile artist. Not only has he published an impressive body of literary, dramatic, and scholarly works over the past thirty years, but he has also tried his hand at filmmaking, as witness his two credits, Bloodgrapes and Black Diamonds. In virtually all of these works, he has identified and examined key issues in contemporary art and criticism and, in doing so, has helped set the terms within which scholars explore them. Ngũgĩ is here [in Canada] to participate in the University of Toronto Writers' Series "Conversations: Writers and Readers in Dialogue." "Conversations" is a project designed to facilitate dialogue between writers from Africa and the African Diaspora on the one hand, and between writers and readers from Africa and the African Diaspora in Toronto on the other. Ngũgĩ is currently Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine."