Masha Gessen is the author of 12 books, including the National Book Award–winning The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia and The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. A staff writer at the New Yorker and the recipient of numerous awards, including Guggenheim and Carnegie fellowships, Gessen is Distinguished Professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism of the City University of New York.