Image by Misha Friedman/Getty Images

By Talya Zax October 4, 2017

Masha Gessen and Elliot Ackerman are among the finalists for this year’s National Book Awards.

Such an honor to be on this list. Thank you @nationalbook https://t.co/rjkb3yMrWd

— Elliot Ackerman (@elliotackerman) October 4, 2017

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Gessen’s “The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia,” released this week, is a finalist for the award in nonfiction. Ackerman’s sophomore novel “Dark at the Crossing” is a finalist for the award in fiction. It is both writers’ first appearance as finalists for the prestigious honors. In 2016, Gessen served as a nonfiction judge for the Awards.

Nominated alongside Ackerman for fiction are Lisa Ko for “The Leavers,” Min Jin Lee for “Pachinko,” Carmen Maria Machado for “Her Body and Other Parties: Stories” and Jesmyn Ward for “Sing, Unburied, Sing.”

Finalists in the nonfiction category, alongside Gessen, are Erica Armstrong Dunbar for “Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge,” Frances FitzGerald for “The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America,” David Grann for “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” and Nancy MacLean for “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America.”

Winners of the Awards will be announced at a gala on November 15.

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