Elliot Ackerman
Journalist and author; Author, The Fifth Act: America鈥檚 End in Afghanistan; Marine Corps and CIA Special Operations Veteran
Elliot Ackerman is the best-selling author of numerous books, including the novels Sheepdogs (Knopf, 2025) and 2034 (Penguin, 2021), and the memoirs The Fifth Act: America鈥檚 End in Afghanistan (Penguin, 2022) and Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning (Penguin, 2019). His books have been nominated for the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, a Senior Fellow at Yale鈥檚 Jackson School of Global Affairs, and a veteran of the Marine Corps and CIA special operations. He served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart.