Author of more than forty internationally acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction, Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He is Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and University Professor at Boston University. He lives in New York City.
Thomas L. Friedman was born in 1953 in Minneapolis, Minn., but distinguished himself as a journalist far away from his home. His reporting on the war in Lebanon won Friedman the George Polk Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. He won a second Pulitzer for his work in Israel. Friedman graduated from Brandeis University and obtained a graduate degree from St. Antony's College. He began his career as a correspondent for United Press International, and later served as bureau chief for the New York Times in Beirut and Jerusalem. He wrote about his experiences as a Jewish-American reporter in the middle east in From Beirut to Jerusalem, which won the National… Book Award in 1989. Friedman is also the author of the text for a photo collection called War Torn, and a contributor to the New York Times magazine.