Critical Moment

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Lorraine Ali is a Los Angeles-based culture writer who's covered everything from gay divorce to Christian rock to the Arab American experience. She's a Newsweek Contributing Editor and has written for the New York Times, GQ, Rolling Stone and Esquire. Ali is currently working on a book about her Iraqi family that's due out next year.

Susannah Meadows was named a senior writer in December 2004. She covers politics, works on  enterprise stories and is a vital part of the Nation team in its coverage of national and breaking news. Meadows spent a year on the 2004 Presidential campaign trail covering Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. John Kerry.

Meadows had been a general editor since she joined Newsweek in April 2000.  She wrote  for the National Affairs and Periscope sections and was a regular contributor to the Arts and Society sections of the magazine.

While at Newsweek, Meadows has written on the five-year anniversary of the Columbine massacre,  Serena Williams and the state of the child welfare system. She wrote a cover story,  "In Defense of Teen Girls," (6/3/02) and contributed to several others, including the "Lawsuit Hell," cover, an investigation of Rush Limbaugh's drug problems and profiles of both John Kerry and John Edwards. She frequently contributes pieces to the Periscope and writes book reviews for the Arts section.

Prior to joining Newsweek, she was Assistant Editor at GQ, covering style, culture, travel and contributing regular book and movie reviews as well as a humorous monthly grooming column.  While at GQ, she also selected and co-edited fiction published in the magazine and picked finalists for the Frederick Exley fiction competition.  She also worked at quarterly literary magazine the Paris Review, where she selected short stories for publication.

A regular contributor to the New York Times Book Reviews, Meadows most recently reviewed the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth controversial book, "Unfit for Command." She also written for New York Magazine, the Village Voice, Glamour, Self, Time Out New York and Details.

She graduated Cum Laude from Duke University with a B.A. in English.  She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

David Ansen is a contributing editor and film critic for Newsweek, where he has been reviewing movies since 1977. He's written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, Film Comment and Interview. He is the artistic director of the Los Angeles Film Festival. Since he was 12, he has kept a list of every movie he has ever seen.

Devin Gordon is the editor of Newsweek Digital, the umbrella company encompassing Newsweek's various web properties, including Newsweek.com and Newsweek Mobile. Previously, from June 2007 to June 2009, he was senior editor of the magazine's Periscope section, which was nominated for a National Magazine Award for "best section" in 2008. Previously, he was a senior writer, writing about film, television, sports and popular culture for the Arts and Entertainment and Society sections. He was part of the Newsweek reporting team for the past three Olympic games, including the Salt Lake City winter games in 2002, the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where he covered swimmer Michael Phelps, and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, for which he wrote Newsweek's cover story about skier Bode Miller.

During his tenure at the magazine, Gordon has written about everything from HBO's "The Wire" to rock band Coldplay to Oscar-winner film directors Ang Lee and Peter Jackson. He profiled "Curb Your Enthusiasm" creator Larry David on the eve of the series' fourth season debut, and "The Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan just prior to the film's record breaking release. For Newsweek's year-end double-issue of 2002, he wrote "The Matrix Makers," (Jan. 6, 2003), a cover story about the two upcoming "Matrix" sequels—the first behind-the-scenes look at the new films by any publication.

Gordon joined Newsweek in 1998, after graduating from Duke University. His first cover story was "The Dominator" (June 18, 2001), an examination of what makes Tiger Woods tick. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Jeff Giles is deputy manager editor at Entertainment Weekly.

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