Tash Aw's 'The Face' Named a Los Angeles Times Isherwood Prize Finalist

Tash Aw's The Face: Strangers on a Pier has been named one of five finalists in the inaugural Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose category of the 2016 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes! Tash will attend the Prize ceremony on Friday, April 21, on the campus of USC, and will be featured in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books during the ensuing weekend. See more details on the LA Times' Jacket Copy blog and at www.latimesbookprizes.com.

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About The Face Series

Alternately philosophical, funny, personal, political, and poetic, the short memoirs in THE FACE series offer unique perspectives on race, culture, identity, and the human experience from some of our most dynamic literary writers. Our inspiration for The Face comes from a passage by Jorge Luis Borges:

“As the years go by, he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face.” 

Booksellers Sing Praises for Ruth Ozeki, Tash Aw, and Chris Abani's The Face

Our new series of personal nonfiction, The Face, has launched to applause! Alternately philosophical, funny, personal, political, and poetic, these short memoirs by Ruth Ozeki, Chris Abani, and Tash Aw offer unique perspectives on race, culture, identity, and the human experience. Check out excerpts in of Tash Aw's book in The New Yorker, of Chris Abani's in Warscapes, and of Ruth Ozeki's on Literary Hub; reviews of all three books in The Minneapolis Star Tribune, Brown Girl Reading, and Kirkus; and an interview with Chris and Tash on the BBC Radio 4 Books Program. But best of all has been the bookstore love! Here's a sampling:

Keaton Patterson, Brazos Bookstore (Houston, TX):

“The first installments in Restless Books' new nonfiction series, THE FACE, are compact, penetrating essays exploring the intersection between the personal and the cultural. Ozeki, Abani and Aw put forth wildly divergent takes on the simple premise of "the face," in works that seamlessly blend memoir and criticism. Ultimately, what we have are highly concentrated ruminations on race, identity and history by some of the most astute literary minds from across the globe. THE FACE highlights the diversity and universality of what it means to be human. Profound stuff.”

Tom Nissley, Phinney Books (Seattle, WA):

“Our front window this week is full of faces, in tribute to a new series started by Restless Books: beautiful, inexpensive little books on a subject we all share, but one that defines us most distinctly as individuals. Is your face a mask, or a revelation of your true self? Their first three writers, all novelists, touch on the physical facts of the faces they've been given by ancestry and time, and move to look to the people who gave them that identity: their parents, and their parents' parents, and the societies that look at those faces and make assumptions. There's a tight focus to the subject—you can put a book in your pocket and read it in an hour or two—but also a delicious looseness that comes from seeing where each writer takes the open-ended assignment. You'll find yourself looking at your own face in the mirror and seeing yourself, and others, anew.”

Jonathan Woollen, Politics and Prose (Washington, DC):

"Restless Books has orchestrated its coming-out party with the Face series. This ongoing collection of pocket memoirs holds a beautifully organic conversation on history at the most personal level through a guided tour of the author’s face.  In Ruth Ozeki’s we explore the creation and dispersal of self in Zen Buddhism and contemporary womanhood; in Chris Abani’s we find a complicatedly pithy look at the reach of a father-son relationship, and a confusing history of Chinese diaspora and global change in Tash Aw’s. With incoming entries from the likes of Roxane Gay and Lynne Tillman, the near future promises writing of equal openness and grace."

Contest: Tweet a Biography of Your Face to Win the Books in The Face Series

What stories does a face tell? In a new series from Restless Books, some of our favorite writers have written a first-person account of that most essential human trait: their own face. The first three books in the series—by Ruth Ozeki, Tash Aw, and Chris Abani—have just been released (more info below), and we're offering a gift of all three books to readers who participate in some "faceography" with us.  Here's how it works:

On Twitter, send a tweet with a picture, a short biography of your face, and the hashtag #facebio. Examples:

We'll retweet your mini face biography from the Restless Books twitter account, and we'll pick a handful of the best #facebio tweets whose tweeters will win all three books in the series!  

Details and FAQs:

How long does the contest run?  We'll start today, Wednesday March 16th, and will announce the winners next Wednesday March 23rd.  Send us your #facebio tweets by then!

Do I need a Twitter account?  Yes. Sign up here. Be sure to follow Restless Books!

How do I send a tweet with a photo attached?  Click the "tweet" button in the top right corner of your Twitter window, which brings up the "compose" window. Hit the camera icon in the lower left and choose a photo of your face. You'll have 107 characters left to write a mini biography of your face, plus the hashtag #facebio. Don't forget the hashtag, or we won't be able to find your tweet!

Do I need to tag @RestlessBooks?  Nope, we'll find your tweet with the hashtag. 

Do I need to include a URL/website link?  No. 

How do I get my books if I win?  We'll send you a tweet asking for your info, and then we'll mail you the books!   

The Books: