May's Employees of the Month

ALEKSANDAR HEMON

Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Lazarus Project, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Book of My Lives, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and three books of short stories. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Genius Grant from the MacArthur Foundation. He lives in Chicago. Hemon is also the sole recipient of the coveted Books Signed by Author at the Request of VICE Fiction Editor Amie Barrodale Award. We're thrilled to be publishling an excerpt from his hilarious forthcoming novel The Making of Zombie Wars.

See THE INCEPTION OF ZOMBIE WARS

RAVEN RAKIA

Raven Rakia is a freelance journalist focused on cities, police, and prisons. She has written for the Nation, Matter, Dazed Digital, Truthout, and more. For this month's issue, Raven traveled to a small town outside Pittsburgh to look into the health concerns of inmates at a prison sitting on a coal-ash dump. The inmates, who are experiencing high rates of respiratory illnesses and skin diseases, are organizing an effort to close the prison. Raven has also reported from Nairobi, Istanbul, and Ferguson, Missouri. Though she currently lives in New York, she is from nowhere, so don't ask her where she's from. You can follow her work on Twitter at @aintacrow.

See ASHES TO ASHES

MICHAEL POLLAN

You can partially blame Michael Pollan for the farm-to-table fury that's swept the country, but don't stay too mad at him, because he's right—and you'll sound like a bitter rube. Michael is the author of the best-selling books The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Botany of Desire, and In Defense of Food and has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, and Harper's. He's also a professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and was featured in the anti-factory-agriculture documentary Food, Inc. Oh, and get this: Michael J. Fox is his brother-in-law. Fox met Pollan's sister Tracy when she played his girlfriend on Family Ties.

See SOS

NATHANIEL RICH

Sir Nathaniel Rich is considered by some to be the patron saint of Bermuda. A merchant adventurer and Member of Parliament, he is responsible for introducing honeybees to the island. Sir Nathaniel died in 1636 after accidentally drinking an excessive quantity of liquid metal. Sir Nathaniel is not, however, related to VICE contributing editor Nathaniel Rich, whose ancestors during that period lived in an anonymous shtetl in Central Europe. Rich the lesser is the author of two novels, Odds Against Tomorrow and The Mayor's Tongue, and is a regular contributor to the New York Times Magazine and the New York Review of Books.

See THE WASTING

JEAN FRIEDMAN-RUDOVSKY

You might remember Jean's last VICE piece, "The Ghost Rapes of Bolivia," which we estimate a hundred million people read. When she's not doing killer reporting for us, she works on her upcoming book, The Disruptors, which is about badass women who are rising up against injustice worldwide (sort of like Jean herself). We think she's so badass that we've asked her to be one of the mag's new contributing editors. Fun fact: Jean was in Tanzania reporting the story in this issue halfway through her first pregnancy, she visited four continents and flew 27 times with the little one inside, and she went into labor right as we were finishing editing it. Happy birthday, Quinn!

See CASUALTIES OF CONSERVATION

ALAN WEISMAN

Alan Weisman's reports from around the world have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Vanity Fair, Orion, and many other outlets. His latest book, Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, has been translated into 13 languages and was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Paris Book Festival Prize for Nonfiction, and the Nautilus Gold Book Award. His previous book, The World Without Us, was named Best Nonfiction Book of 2007 by Time and Entertainment Weekly. He is a senior documentary writer and producer for Homelands Productions and lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife, the sculptor Beckie Kravetz.

See SOS

Illustrations by Geffen Refaeli