Jonas Fredwall Karlsson

Persuading the monks of the Vatopaidi monastery to be photographed for “Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds” (page 232) was no easy task for contributing photographer Jonas Fredwall Karlsson. “There was a lot of back-and-forth before we were even allowed into the monastery,” he says. “Then contributing producer Ron Beinner and I asked Father Arsenios, our main subject, four or five times before he finally said O.K. But in the end all of us were happy.” In this issue Fredwall Karlsson also shot the portraits of Christopher Hitchens and Sean Parker. “To meet Christopher Hitchens in his apartment in Washington, D.C., was special,” he says. “I’ve always been a fan of his work.”

Michael Lewis

Contributing editor Michael Lewis’s investigation into the Greek debt crisis (“Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds”) took him from government offices in Athens to a remote monastery on the Aegean Sea, where the scandal that helped bring to light the rotten state of the country’s public finances originated. The main question facing Greece, says Lewis, is “How much longer will the German people put up with paying the debt of others?” Lewis, the author of the No. 1 New York Times best-seller The Big Short, won a Loeb Award and an Overseas Press Club award for his reporting on Iceland’s financial meltdown in the April 2009 issue of V.F.

Bill Maher

“He’s all about the music,” says comedian and pundit Bill Maher of vaunted producer Clive Davis, whose latest collaboration with guitar legend Carlos Santana he spotlights in “Mix Masters” (page 168). Maher lauds Davis as “probably the only guy in the music industry who’s both fearless on the artistic end and can also tell you, down to the penny, how much every one of his records ever made” (and he says this without a hint of his famous sarcasm). Maher’s 12-time-Emmy-nominated show, Real Time with Bill Maher, returns to HBO this fall.

Jay Mclnemey

For this month’s feature on culinary master Ferran Adria (page 170), Jay Mclnemey traveled to the small coastal town of Roses, Spain, for an interview with Adria and dinner at El Bulli, the restaurant that made him famous. “Adria was incredibly warm, welcoming, and brimming with excitement,” says Mclnemey, who enjoys cooking meals for his wife and family when at their country home in the Hamptons. But nothing could have prepared the novelist and epicure for his epic, 35-course meal at what has been called the world’s greatest restaurant. “It was a very sensual experience, Mclnemey says. “It also expanded my notions of what’s possible in the realm of cooking.”

Norman Jean Roy

Contributing photographer Norman Jean Roy shot this month’s cover subject, Lindsay Lohan, on the eve of her prison sentence, on a yacht just off Long Beach, California (“Adrift... page 222). Of his inspiration, Roy says, “We drew references from Grace Kelly, channeling Old Hollywood to make her look more like a classic actress.” Roy (pictured here with his children) feels that a key factor in every photo shoot is the energy of the subject, and Lohan did not disappoint. “Lindsay is a great girl and a raw talent,” he says. “I really enjoyed working with her.”

Sarah Ellison

Sarah Ellison knows what makes Rupert Murdoch tick—and it’s not purely political ideology or even money. What is his ultimate goal in the one-sided war he is waging on The New York Times, about which Ellison writes in “Two Men and a Newsstand” (page 242)? “This is the culmination of a lifelong grudge against the elites, and he wants to win,” says the former Wall Street Journal reporter and author of War at the Wall Street Journal. Although the Times may be an unwilling adversary in this battle, Ellison argues that the conflict was inevitable. “Murdoch does not need provocation to go to war—he starts it.”

James Kaplan

In his forthcoming biography, Frank: The Voice (excerpted in “The Night Sinatra Happened,” beginning on page 258), best-selling author James Kaplan goes beyond the cliches about Sinatra—the scandals, the Mob connections, the blue eyes— and delves, with empathy, into his turbulent early years. “I interviewed everybody I could get my hands on,” says Kaplan. “I tried to read everything and triangulate all the knowledge. Yet I came to the project not so much as a Sinatra fanatic but as someone who is fascinated by this story—it’s a great American story.” Frank: The Voice comes out in November from Doubleday.

Howard Schatz

Since October 2006, ophthalmologist turned photographer Howard Schatz has been capturing one-on-one improvisation with some of Hollywood’s most emotive stars for V.F.’s monthly In Character feature, inspired by his book In Character: Actors Acting. Schatz has dreamed up roles for and directed everyone from Michael Douglas and Brooke Shields to this month’s subject, comedian Ken Jeong (page 219). “I usually start with easy parts to get warmed up and then see where I can take each actor,” says Schatz, who was recently named Photographer of the Year by Prix de la Photographic Paris. To see a slide show of Schatz’s In Character sessions, visit VF.com.

Heather Halberstadt and Peter Newcomb

Having worked together to edit V.F.’s annual New Establishment list for the past five years, Heather Halberstadt and Peter Newcomb have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. “Last year was depressing, because across the board everyone just got hammered,” says Newcomb. | “This year, if you look at the list as a microcosm of the broader economy, you have good cause to feel optimistic. Nearly everybody is up.” As for the thinking behind Facebook founder and C.E.O. Mark Zuckerberg’s landing the top spot, Halberstadt, a senior editor at WSJ., The Wall Street Journal’s weekend magazine, says, “Facebook has become so ubiquitous, for better or worse, that it just felt like it was his year— maybe even more so now that he’s becoming the man everyone loves to hate.”

David Kirkpatrick

In his first contribution to V.F., “With a Little Help from His Friends” (page 176), former Fortune editor David Kirkpatrick profiles Facebook’s founding president, the enigmatic bad boy Sean Parker. A major figure in Kirkpatrick’s recent book, The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World,Parker will be portrayed by Justin Timberlake in the new movie The Social Network. “Writing this article was an excuse for me to delve more deeply into Sean’s story,” says Kirkpatrick. “He has had an impact on our era to rival that of anyone of his generation.” Kirkpatrick is one of the creators of Techonomy, a media company that organizes conferences about technology and innovation.

Dana Brown

Vanity Fair’s senior articles editor, Dana Brown, works closely with writers to develop ideas and then fine-tune their stories before they make it into print. For this month’s issue, Brown, a 16-year veteran of the magazine, was the editor of two Spotlights and of Nancy Jo Sales’s cover story, “Adrift...” (page 222). “As an editor, I’m lucky I get to work with such talented, tireless journalists,” says Brown. “And I get to lead a life of adventure without leaving my desk.”