Renowned Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o discusses his new novel in verse, The Perfect Nine, with UC Irvine professor Ketu Katrak in an online event with the Free Library of Philadelphia. The Perfect Nine retells the origin myth of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya and chronicles the efforts the founders make to find partners for their ten beautiful daughters—called “The Perfect Nine” —and the challenges posed to the 99 suitors who seek their hands.  Written in verse, this genre-defying novel blends elements of adventure and suspense with humor and is steeped in folklore and mythology.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, born in Limuru, Kenya, in 1938, is one of the leading writers and scholars at work today. He is the author of A Grain of Wheat; Weep Not, Child; and Petals of Blood, as well as Birth of a Dream Weaver, Wrestling with the Devil, Minutes of Glory, and The Perfect Nine (all from The New Press). Currently Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine, Ngũgĩ is the recipient of twelve honorary doctorates, among other awards, and has been nominated for the Man Booker International Prize.

Ketu H. Katrak is Professor in the Department of Drama at the University of California, Irvine. She is author of the forthcoming Jay Pather, Performance, and Spatial Politics in South Africa, as well as Contemporary Indian Dance: New Creative Choreography in India and the Diaspora, Politics of the Female Body: Postcolonial Women Writers of the Third World, and Wole Soyinka and Modern Tragedy: A Study of Dramatic Theory and Practice.