Justine van der Leun is an independent journalist and the author of several books, the most recent of which is We Are Not Such Things: The Murder of a Young American, a South African Township, and the Search for Truth and Reconciliation. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, VQR, The Guardian, and Harper’s, among others. She is a reporter with Type Media and a grantee of The International Women’s Media Foundation. Her current work examines the relationship between trauma survivors and the criminal justice system. She is a 2019-2020 PEN America Writing For Justice Fellow.