Half-Italian, half-British, Michela Wrong was born in 1961. She grew up in London and took a degree in Philosophy and Social Sciences at Jesus College, Cambridge and a diploma in journalism at Cardiff.
She joined Reuters news agency in the early 1980s and was posted as a foreign correspondent to Italy, France and Ivory Coast. She became a freelance journalist in 1994, when she moved to then-Zaire and found herself covering both the genocide in neighboring Rwanda and the final days of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko for the BBC and Reuters. She later moved to Kenya, where she spent four years covering east, west and central Africa for the Financial Times newspaper.
Michela Wrong's non-fiction books on contemporary Africa aim to be accessible to both members of the general public and experts in the field. They have become a must-read for diplomats, aid officials, journalists and strategists based on the continent and regularly feature on the "required reading" lists of International Relations and African Studies courses at university.
She currently lives in London and is regularly interviewed by the BBC, Al Jazeera and Reuters on her areas of expertise. She has also published opinion pieces and book reviews in the Observer, Guardian, Financial Times, New Statesman, Spectator and Standpoint magazines. She speaks fluent Italian, French and basic Spanish.
She is a trustee of Human Rights Watch Africa, International Alert and the Partnership for Transparency Fund, an anti-corruption NGO.
She was awarded the 2010 James Cameron prize for journalism "that combined moral vision and professional integrity." In 2014 she was appointed literary director of the Miles Morland Foundation, which funds a range of African literary festivals and a scholarship scheme for African writers.
Michela Wrong's website
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