Meja Mwangi (born 27 December 1948) is one of Kenya's leading novelists. Mwangi has worked in the film industry, including screenwriting, assistant directing, casting and location management.

Meja Mwangi began his prolific writing career in the 1970s, a decade after his more well-known compatriots such as Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Grace Ogot had been publishing their works. When he burst onto the scene with the award-winning Kill Me Quick in 1973, Mwangi was hailed in various quarters as a rising star in the East African literary constellation who was helping to disprove Taban lo Liyong's oft-cited claim that East
Africa was a literary desert (Taban 1965, Nazareth 1976). Since then, Meja Mwangi has gone on to establish himself as one of the most prolific of Kenyan writers, publishing eleven novels in seventeen years in addition to short stories, children's books and working with a variety of projects in film. Mwangi's works have received awards in Kenya and abroad, they have been translated into six languages, and there are film versions of two of his novels.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Kill Me Quick (1973) ISBN 0-435-90143-5
- Going Down River Road (1976) ISBN 0-435-90176-1
- The Cockroach Dance (1979) ISBN 0-582-64276-0
- Carcase for Hounds (1974) ISBN 0-435-90145-1
- Taste of Death (1975)
- The Bushtrackers (1979) ISBN 0-582-78525-1
- Bread of Sorrow (1987)
- The Return of Shaka (1989)
- Weapon of Hunger (1989) ISBN 9966-49-813-3
- Striving for the Wind (1990) ISBN 0-435-90979-7
- The Last Plague (2000) ISBN 9966-25-064-6
- Mountain of Bones (2001)
- The Boy Gift (2006) ISBN 978-1-84728-471-6
- Mama Dudu, the Insect Woman (2007) ISBN 978-1-84728-468-6
- Baba Pesa (2007) ISBN 978-0-9796476-1-1
- The Big Chiefs (2007) ISBN 978-0-9796476-3-5
- Gun Runner (2007) ISBN 978-0-9796476-0-4
- Power (2009) ISBN 978-0-9796476-9-7
- Blood Brothers (2009) ISBN 978-0-9820126-0-4

FILMOGRAPHY
- Out of Africa (1985), assistant director
- White Mischief (1987, second assistant director
- The Kitchen Toto, casting director
- Gorillas in the Mist (1985), assistant director
- Shadow On The Sun (1988), location manager

PRIZES AND AWARDS
- Jomo Kenyatta Prize, for Kill Me Quick(1974)
- Jomo Kenyatta Prize, for Going Down River Road (1977)
- Lotus Award (Afro-Asian Writers' Association) (1978)
- Noma Award (honourable mention), for Bread of Sorrow (1989)
- Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (German Youth Literature Prize), for Little White Man (1992)
- Le Prix Lire au College, for Kariuki (1992)
- Jomo Kenyatta Prize for The Last Plague (2001)
- National Book Week Award (Kenya) for The Last Plague
- Nominated for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, for The Last Plague (2002)
- Society of School Librarians International Honor Book Award (USA), for The Mzungu Boy (2005)
- American Library Association National Book for Children Award, for The Mzungu Boy (2006)
- Children's Africana Book Award (best book for older readers), for The Mzungu Boy (2006)
- Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, Adult Fiction third place, Big Chief (2009)