Ishmael Beah is a Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist who rose to fame with his acclaimed memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. ^ UNICEF, Youth leadership profiles, unicef.org; retrieved 15 February 2007. ^ "BEA 2013: Ishmael Beah: After War", Hilary S. Kayle, Publishers Weekly, 30 May 2013.