The finalists for this year's National Book Awards have been announced. Among the 25 nominees are novelists Rabih Alameddine and Megha Majumdar as well as journalists Julia Ioffe and Omar El Akkad, who also writes fiction.

The winners of each category will be announced on Nov. 19 at an event in New York City. Also being honored are two lifetime achievement winners: author and Syracuse University professor George Saunders and author, cultural critic and Rutgers University-New Brunswick professor Roxane Gay.

Nine of this year's nominees have received previous recognitions from the National Book Foundation, the organization behind the National Book Awards. Alameddine is a previous finalist for his 2014 novel “An Unnecessary Woman,” while Majumdar was longlisted in 2020 for her debut novel,

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