Authors

Dr. Denis Mukwege was born in the Belgian Congo in 1955. His life has been marked by the transformations and tragedies of his home country. Now a renowned surgeon, he is recognized as the world’s leading expert on treating rape injuries, and his holistic approach to healing has inspired other initiatives around the world. In 2014, he was invited to the White House by Barack Obama. In Europe, he was awarded the Sakharov human rights prize award. In November 2018, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Yazidi human rights activist and sexual violence survivor Nadia Murad.

Susan Spindler read English at Cambridge and won a commendation in the British Press Awards for her reporting while she was a graduate trainee with Thomson Regional Newspapers.  She later joined the BBC where she made documentaries about science and medicine for series such as Tomorrow’s World and Horizon and became an award-winning editor of the QED series and Deputy Head of Science. She has written two non-fiction books about science and medicine: The Tomorrow’s World Book of Food and Doctors To Be.  Her subsequent BBC career included stints as Chief Advisor for Editorial Policy, Controller of Drama, and Deputy Director of Drama, Entertainment & Children’s Programmes. She lives in South London. Surrogate is her first novel.

Séverine Autesserre is the chair of political science at Barnard College and Columbia University, and has worked for aid organizations including the United Nations and Doctors Without Borders.

She has been a featured speaker at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the United Nations Security Council, among others, and her TED talk on solving mass violence has over 800,000 views.

Originally from Wales and currently living in New York, where he teaches at the School of Visual Arts, Simon Van Booy is the award-winning, bestselling author of more than a dozen books for adults and children. He is the editor of three volumes of philosophy and has written for publications including The Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Washington Post. A firm defender of the power of education as a tool for social reform, he frequently leads conferences in schools, universities, and libraries across the globe. His first novel, Love Begins in Winter (2009), recounts the touching encounter of two people, each of them in the midst of grief.

His novel Sipsworth published in 2024 and is currently in development.

NATAËL TRAPP was born in 1982 and never quite recovered from it. He likes walks in the mountains, metaphysics and stories with happy endings. He lives in Brittany with his cat Albertine.

Khaled Naim is a Lebanese author based in London. He studied English literature at the American University of Beirut and currently teaches French and English.

Tom Mustill is a biologist turned filmmaker and writer, specialising in stories where people and nature meet. His film collaborations, many with Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough, have received numerous international awards. He was made an ambassador by Whale and Dolphin Conservation, representing cetaceans anywhere he can be helpful, including at COP28.

He lives in Cornwall with his wife Annie and daughters Stella and Astrid.

Alice O’Keeffe is a sub-editor at the arts and books desk of The Times and Sunday Times, where she also contributes regular book reviews and articles. Her journalism and criticism has previously appeared in The Guardian, The Observer and The New Statesman. She has published two novels. Her first, On the Up (2019), tells the warm and comic story of a young family trying to survive and thrive amid London’s housing crisis, and finding community in unexpected places. In Skylark (2021), Alice explores the scandals of the undercover police officers who infiltrated the UK in 2010. We’re used to spy heroes and honeytraps. Skylark turns the genre on its head: in this story our hero is not the spy, but the person being spied on.

Raphael Montes, born in 1990 in Rio de Janeiro, is Brazil’s most prominent thriller writer. He is best known for The Secret Dinner, a dark and provocative thriller set in Rio de Janeiro that has sold over 300,000 copies and established him as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary crime fiction. He has written eight novels: Russian Roulette, Perfect Days, The Village, The Secret Dinner, Good Morning, Veronica, Mortal Magic (his first YA book), A Happy Family, and A Woman In The Dark, which won the Jabuti Prize in 2020. His novels have received critical acclaim, been sold over a million copies and are published in more than 25 countries. Also a screenwriter, Raphael is the creator, head writer, and executive producer of Scars of Beauty—the most highly-streamed original show on HBO Max Latam—and the award-winning Netflix series Good Morning, Veronica (APCA 2020). He has written several movie scripts, including The Girl Who Killed Her Parents, very well-received on Amazon Prime, and A Happy Family. Recently, Raphael founded Casa Montes, a development production company focused on crime, horror, suspense series and feature film projects. He lives between Rio and New York and has a strong presence on social media (@raphael_montes), where he shares his creative process with his readers.

Zarifa Adiba is the lead violist and co-conductor of Zohra, Afghanistan’s first (and only) all-female orchestra. She studied at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, the only music education entity in Afghanistan in 2017. She is currently studying International Politics at both Bard College and American University of Central Asia. She is an activist for girls and education and has participated in several panels, including at the World Economic Forum in 2017. Playing for Freedom is her first book.

For speaking engagement inquiries, please contact ny@susannalea.com.