Ishmael Bih was born in Sierra Leone in 1980. He participated in the civil war in Sierra Leone (1991-2002). In 1998, he moved to the United States, where he received a secondary education, having studied for two years in high school at the UN International School in New York. In 2004 he received a Bachelor of Political Science degree from Oberlin College. Beech is a member of Human Rights Watch’s Child Rights Watch watchdog and speaks at the UN Council on Foreign Relations. Ishmael Beeh now lives in New York. The most widely read contemporary African writer.