CONTRIBUTORS

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ

In 2007, Contributing Photographer Annie Leibovitz became the first American photographer invited to take an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. This year, to mark her 90th birthday, the Queen sat for Leibovitz again, at Windsor Palace, and the resulting portfolio, "The Elizabethan Aura," on page 98, includes photos exclusive to Vanity Fair. "The most moving, important thing about this shoot is that these were all her ideas," says Leibovitz. "She wanted to be photographed with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren; her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh; her daughter, Anne, the Princess Royal; and her corgis. I was told how relaxed she was at Windsor, and it was really true. You get the sense of how at peace she was with herself, and very much enthralled with her family."

SIR KENNETH SCOTT

Beginning in 1985, following a three-decade career as a diplomat, Sir Kenneth Scott spent 10 years as one of three private secretaries to Queen Elizabeth II, an experience he recounts in "In Her Majesty's Private Service," on page 108. Now, he notes "how amazingly active she is for her age, and how she is still as easy to talk to as she was then." He resides in Edinburgh and still sees the Queen there during her annual summer residence at Holyroodhouse.

REINALDO HERRERA

Contributing Editor Reinaldo Herrera, who last month wrote about the Queen and her late sister, Princess Margaret, considers it a great honor to be able to show glimpses of Her Majesty's humor, without invading her privacy, in "The Pleasure of Her Company," on page 118. "There is a delicate balance to be maintained between an observer's commentary and plain gossip," says Herrera.

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ELISSA SCHAPPELL

"There is no better job for a writer with a serious book habit, a slim wallet, and an agenda she wants to hustle than being a book reviewer for a magazine with millions of culture-sawy readers," says Contributing Editor Elissa Schappell, who this month concludes her 22-year run as Hot Type columnist. Among the job's highlights? "Being the one American journalist to get to interview Elena Ferrante for her last book," says Schappell. "She is magnificent."

EARL of MARCH and KINRARA

For the Spotlight on page 84, Charles March, Earl of March and Kinrara, profiles Alejandro Agag, the founder and C.E.O. of the electric-motor-racing company Formula E. The Earl of March and Kinrara is a founder of the renowned racing venue Goodwood Motor Circuit, in West Sussex, England. In addition to managing his 11,500-acre family estate, which is home to the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars head office, he is a film and photography enthusiast whose photographs have been displayed in galleries in London and New York.

WILLIAM SHAWCROSS

William Shawcross, who introduces the portfolio of the Queen, is the author of more than a dozen books, including the biographies Queen and Country and The Queen Mother, and the editor of Counting One's Blessings: The Selected Letters of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. "The joy of the Queen is that she represents so clearly the timeless values on which most people rely: compassion, loyalty, and love," says Shawcross. "Equally clearly, she loves life and is great fun."

SEBASTIAN JUNGER

For "War & Truth," on page 134, Contributing Editor Sebastian Junger honors four eminent war photographers, whose images have spanned eight decades and virtually every corner of the globe. "If you learn in detail about the experiences of any combat journalist, you realize all over again how incredibly traumatic war is," Junger says. "It does pose this sort of eternal question: If it's that traumatic, why do people keep going back to it?" Junger's fifth book, Tribe, was published last month.

NICK BILTON

"Twitter is a company that is founded on the idea of storytelling," declares newly minted Special Correspondent Nick Bilton, whose update on the beleaguered platform, "Dorsey's Dilemma," appears on page 128. "But right now, and since it's gone public, it's had an incredibly difficult time telling its own story to Wall Street." Bilton has covered Twitter for a decade and literally wrote the book on the company, Hatching Twitter, which he is adapting for television with Lionsgate.

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BETHANY McLEAN

In her Lebruary profile of Martin Shkreli, the disgraced ex-C.E.O. of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Contributing Editor Bethany McLean found the germ for her investigation of the spectacular fall of the pharmaceutical company Valeant ("Wall Street's Drug Problem," on page 86). "I remember asking one investor, 'Well, what's the difference between what Martin Shkreli is doing and what Valeant is doing?' " says McLean. "And he kind of looked at me and admitted, 'Maybe nothing.' "

JAMES WOLCOTT

In "Wild in the Tweets," on page 74, Contributing Editor James Wolcott discusses the corrosive influence of the Twitterati on journalistic style. "A lot of writing is looser, more formless— conversational in a bad way," says Wolcott.

"But one of the worst things is that journalists now think they're a bunch of wisecrackers." Wolcott also introduces Everybody Behaves Badly Lesley M. M. Blume's book about the characters behind Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, in "Let's Get Lost," on page 64.

ANTONIO GARCIA MARTINEZ

According to Antonio Garcia Martinez, "With absolutely seismic changes going on in Silicon Valley, nobody's documenting it." With his new memoir, Chaos Monkeys, the former Lacebook product manager is disrupting all that. In "Zuckerberg Unbound," on page 138, adapted from his book, he recounts the existential battle between incumbent Google and upstart Lacebook when the former launched Google Plus, its competing social network.

KATIE NICHOLL

In "Charlotte's World," on page 120, Katie Nicholl writes about the decision of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to raise Prince George and Princess Charlotte at Anmer Hall, 100 miles northeast of London. "What really strikes me is how lucky the prince and princess are," says Nicholl. "Despite their titles, they are actually getting to enjoy ordinary childhoods." Nicholl is the royal correspondent for The Mail on Sunday and the author of Kate: The Future Queen.