[2] Contributors have included Mark Aarons, Waleed Aly, John Birmingham, Peter Conrad, Annabel Crabb, Richard Flanagan, Robert Forster, Anna Funder, Helen Garner, Anna Goldsworthy,[3] Kerryn Goldsworthy, Ramachandra Guha, Gideon Haigh, M. J. Hyland, Linda Jaivin, Clive James, Kate Jennings, Paul Kelly, Benjamin Law, Amanda Lohrey, Mungo MacCallum, Shane Maloney, Robert Manne, David Marr, Maxine McKew, Drusilla Modjeska, Peter Robb, Kevin Rudd, Margaret Simons, Tim Soutphommasane, Lindsay Tanner, Malcolm Turnbull and Don Watson.

[5][failed verification] Early in 2006, The Monthly published "Information Idol: How Google is making us stupid" by Gideon Haigh, and "The Tall Man: Palm Island's Heart of Darkness" by Chloe Hooper which was extended to the book The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island in 2008.

"The Outcast of Camp Echo: The Punishment of David Hicks" by Alfred W. McCoy, "Faith in Politics" by Kevin Rudd, and "Gunns: Out of Control" by Richard Flanagan have given wider attention to the issues raised beyond the readership of the magazine.

This section is an acknowledgment to the former businessman Gordon Barton who founded a weekly newspaper titled Nation Review.

[citation needed] Encounters At the back of the magazine there was a one-page story recalling an unlikely but real historical meeting between two famous individuals, for example "Errol Flynn & Fidel Castro".