Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist who covered the war on terror from Afghanistan to Guantanamo. His work earned a National Newspaper Award for Investigative Journalism and the Goff Penny Award for Young Journalists.

Kamila Shamsie is an award-winning novelist with eight acclaimed books, including Home Fire, winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction. Her latest, Best of Friends, won the Karachi Literature Festival/Getz Fiction Award.

The event will take place in the Auditorium at Georgetown University in Qatar.