Breyten Breytenbach is a South African writer, painter and activist. He left South Africa in 1960 as a result of his horror at apartheid and settled in Paris in 1962. Breytenbach's first literary works were poems, many expressing his political views, and he is recognised as one of the finest living poets of the Afrikaans language. On a clandestine return to his homeland in 1975, Breytenbach was arrested under the Terrorism Act and jailed for seven years. Out of this experience came the semi-fictional Mouroir: Mirrornotes of a Novel and The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist, widely regarded as a political and artistic masterpiece. Breytenbach now lives in Paris and New York.

Janine di Giovanni is an award-winning author and journalist. She has been covering global conflict since the 1980s, and is considered one of Europe's most respected journalists. She is the author of The Place at the End of the World: Essays from the Edge, and Madness Visible: A Memoir of War, both of which have been critically acclaimed for dealing so movingly with the human cost of war. Janine writes regularly for The Times and Vanity Fair, and is a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, The Spectator, National Geographic, Granta and many others. She is the recipient of four major awards, including the National Magazine Award for her work in Kosovo, two Amnesty International Awards for her coverage of Sierra Leone and Bosnia, and Britain's Granada Television's Foreign Correspondent of the Year for her reporting on Chechnya. Janine's next book, Ghosts by Daylight, is a memoir of war and motherhood set in Paris and is due out in 2011. Janine will act as president of the jury for this year's Prix Bayeux Correspondents des Guerres in October. She lives in Paris with her son. www.janinedigiovanni.com