The 8 Li(n, γ) 9 Li reaction plays an important role in both the r-process nucleosynthesis and the inhomogeneous big bang models, its direct capture rates can be extracted from the 8 Li(d, p) 9 Li reaction, indirectly. We have measured the angular distribution of the 8 Li(d, p) 9 Li g.s. reaction at E c.m. = 7.8 MeV in inverse kinematics using coincidence detection of 9 Li and recoil proton, for the first time. Based on Distorted Wave Born Approximation (DWBA) analysis, the 8 Li(d, p) 9 Li g.s.cross section was determined to be 7.9 ± 2.0 mb. The single particle spectroscopic factor, S 1,3/2 , for the ground state of 9 Li = 8 Li ⊗ n was derived to be 0.68 ± 0.14, and then used to calculate the direct capture cross sections for the 8 Li(n, γ) 9 Li g.s. reaction at energies of astrophysical interest.The astrophysical 8 Li(n, γ) 9 Li g.s. reaction rate for the direct capture was found to be 3970 ± 950 cm 3 mole −1 s −1 at T 9 = 1. This presents the first experimental constraint for the 8 Li(n, γ) 9 Li reaction rates of astrophysical relevance.