CONTRIBUTORS//

"Najma Abdullah" was born in Baghdad and is the author of A Star from Mosul, a personal Weblog. She says she is a 16-year-old high school student who lives in Mosul, Iraq.

Victoria Brittain is a research associate at the London School of Economics. She worked for 25 years at The Guardian, where she was a correspondent in Washington, Saigon, Algiers, and Nairobi, and later an associate foreign editor, and where she still is a contributor. She is the author of several books about Africa, including two dealing with the impact of the Cold War and US policy on the war in Angola.

Reid Carolin is a filmmaker whose work has been shown at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival and on HBO, PBS, and NBC Nightly News. He is working on a documentary film about American Indian housing problems and a documentary film about wounded soldiers returning from Iraq. He lives in Los Angeles.

Ashley Gilbertson is an Australian photographer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, The Boston Globe, U.S. News & World Report, and the Far Eastern Economic Review. He has reported from Southeast Asia, the Balkans, Central Asia, and, for the past three years, Iraq. He most recently photographed the U.S.-led offensive in Falluja. He is based in New York City.

Sue Johnson is a photographer who for nearly a decade has produced online documentaries. Her collaborations include The Sonic Memorial Project, an open archive and online audio installation of the history of the World Trade Center; 360degrees.org, which documents America's criminal justice system from multiple perspectives; and Mandela: An Audio History, a five-part series on National Public Radio. She lives in New York City.

Kimberly Peirce directed and co-wrote the Oscar-winning feature film Boys Don't Cry, the story of Teena Brandon, a 21-year-old Nebraska woman who lived as a man and was raped and killed when her sexual identity was revealed. Peirce is working on a second feature film about the murder of a 1920's Hollywood director and a documentary film about wounded soldiers returning from Iraq. She lives in Los Angeles.

Marjane Satrapi was born and raised in Iran. She has written several children's books, and her illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times, as well as several publications in Europe. She lives in Paris, where she is working on a graphic memoir that spans a single afternoon in her grandmother's living room.

Gillian Slovo was born in South Africa and is the author of Every Secret Thing, a memoir about her parents, who were exiled with their children from South Africa in 1964 for antiapartheid organizing. Later, Slovo's mother was killed by a letter bomb widely believed to have originated from military sources within South Africa. Slovo has written ten novels, the latest of which was shortlisted for England's Orange Prize. She lives in London.

EDITORS, PRODUCERS, ILLUSTRATORS//

Gina Chon is training journalists in northern Iraq and co-writing a book about the top surviving leader of the Khmer Rouge. She produced and edited the TEXT piece.

Sean Cole is a producer and reporter at WBUR in Boston. He mixed and scored the SOUND piece.

Josh Coleman is a sound technician in New York City. He engineered the SOUND piece.

Lucy Edkins is a London-based artist who illustrated conditions at Guantánamo based on interviews with released detainees. She made the illustration for the SOUND piece.

Jeff Griggs is a contributing intern at the Forward newspaper and a student at Columbia University. He helped produce the SOUND and COMICS pieces.

Tim Heffernan is a freelance writer in New York City. He copyedited the site.

Anne Jensen is a copy editor at Redbook in New York City. She copyedited the site.

John Lee is a staff photographer at the Chicago Tribune. He helped edit the PHOTO piece.

Joe Richman is an award-winning independent radio producer and the founder of Radio Diaries. He edited audio in the INTERACTIVE piece.

ACTORS, DIRECTORS//

Nicolas Kent is the artistic director at the Tricycle Theatre in London, where he has been a pioneer of "verbatim theater"—plays based on spoken and written evidence. He conceived of the idea for the play Guantánamo: 'Honor Bound to Defend Freedom,' from which the SOUND piece was excerpted.

Caroline Lagerfelt has appeared in numerous plays, TV programs, and films, including the award-winning TV series Nash Bridges and the feature film Minority Report. She lives and works in both New York City and Los Angeles. She plays Gareth Pierce in the SOUND piece.

Aasif Mandvi is an award-winning actor best known for his one-man show, Sakina's Restaurant. He has appeared in numerous plays, TV programs, and films, most recently in Robert Altman's Tanner on Tanner. He lives in New York City and plays Moazzam Begg in the SOUND piece.

Harsh Nayyar has appeared on Broadway and in numerous regional theater productions and feature films, including the recent Hidalgo. He lives in New York City and plays Mr. Begg in the SOUND piece.

Joris Stuyck has worked as an actor in the United States and Europe for 20 years. He has appeared at the Royal Court Theater in London and on BBC TV and lives in New York City. He plays Clive Stafford Smith in the SOUND piece.

Sacha Wares co-directed, with Nicolas Kent, the original production of Guantánamo in London. She is directing a production of the novel Platform at London's Institute of Contemporary Art.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR/DESIGNER//

Thiago de Mello Bueno is a designer in New York City.

FOUNDERS, LEAD EDITORS//

Nathan Deuel is an editor at The Village Voice and a print designer for Summer Literary Seminars.

Kelly McEvers is a writer and independent radio producer in New York City.

This issue of Six Billion is dedicated to our departed friends, Bob Raebig and Leah Deni. May their tireless efforts to better the world forever inspire us. We will miss them.

“Battleground States” was made possible by many generous donations of time and money. Special thanks to Sally Adams, Jan and Bill Costello, Jacki Williams, Elizabeth Morris, Sarah Jaye, Doc and Sue Schneider, Ed Martini and Genanne Zeller, Chela and TJ Noto, Kane and Al Deuel, Friends for Rich Brauer, Tim Heffernan, Mac Black, Chuck Thompson, Josh Coleman and Pneumatic, The Culture Project (particularly Lauren Saffa and Alyssa Seiden), and Harvard University's Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism for their support.

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