Submissions Open for the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing - Fiction

We've opened submissions for the 2018 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing at a critical time for immigrants: just as news breaks that DACA will end unless Congress acts to prolong it. The Prize is, primarily, a celebration of the many ways in which immigrants enrich our culture. Some of the most vivid literature of recent years can be attributed to immigrant authors, whose deft voices expertly bridge cultural gaps and tear down linguistic barriers. This year's Prize is also a testament to the countless Americans whose lives are deeply enmeshed in the fabric of our society and who are being subjected to the threat of deportation. 

Now in its third year, the Prize for New Immigrant Writing is expanding to include first-generation immigrants from around the world. All who meet the eligibility requirements are encouraged to apply. Restless will publish an outstanding debut work of fiction and award its author $10,000, as we did with our inaugural winner, Deepak Unnikrishnan's Temporary People.

As Restless publisher Ilan Stavans writes in his introduction to the prize, “immigrants have shown us what resilience and dedication we’re capable of, and have expanded our sense of what it means to be global citizens. In these times of intense xenophobia, it is more important than ever that these boundary-crossing stories reach the broadest possible audience”. This year we could not be more proud to affirm our commitment to immigrant literature. We can’t wait to read and share what the new voices of the world have to say!

More about Past Winners of the Immigrant Writing Prize

The 2017 Immigrant Writing Prize for Nonfiction has been awarded to Grace Talusan for her memoir, The Body Papers, a brave, artful memoir about trauma, illness, and immigration as told through personal and official documentation. The judges praised her writing, stating that “ She tackles with literary subtlety and a deep reservoir of compassion the paradoxes imposed by being the 'perfect immigrant'—but also an 'illegal' one." The book is scheduled to be published in the Fall of 2018. Read More.

The 2016 Immigrant Writing Prize for Fiction went to Deepak Unnikrishnan for his novel Temporary People, a book of linked stories about the migrant workers of the United Arab Emirates that the judges call "a brave, stylistically inventive book that presents a frightening, surreal world that’s all too true to life." The book has garnered over 75 reviews, including from The New Yorker, The Economist, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, and many more.

Announcing the 2017 Immigrant Writing Prize Finalists

Founded by Mexican immigrant Ilan Stavans, Restless Books has always believed passionately in the rich contributions immigrants have made to our culture and literature. Now in its second year, we're delighted to announce the finalists for the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, to be awarded this year for a debut work of nonfiction by a first-generation immigrant. We've been bowled over by the keen insight and wide diversity of experience that these writers have boldly brought to the page. After careful deliberation, judges Anjali Singh and Ilan Stavans have selected four finalists: 

2017 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing Shortlist

• King Leopold's Daughter, by Mona de Vestel

• Far from the Rooftop of the World, by Amy Yee

• The Body Papers, by Grace Talusan

• The Fifth Season, by Nikita Nelin

The winning writer will receive $10,000 and publication by Restless Books. Read more about these brilliant up-and-coming authors below, and stay tuned for the announcement of the winner! 

—Anjali Singh, Ilan Stavans, and the Restless Books team

P.S. In case you missed last year's selection for debut fiction, be sure to check out Deepak Unnikrishnan's Temporary People, which we published in March to extraordinary acclaim. 

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About the 2017 nonfiction Finalists

Mona de Vestel

An immigrant of mixed Belgian and Tutsi descent, Mona de Vestel grew up in Brussels and moved to the United States at the age of 13. After completing a degree in Arabic (Georgetown University) and a MFA in Creative Writing (Goddard College), she taught writing at the State University of New York (Oswego & Utica). In addition to teaching and writing, she has written and directed a one-woman show about healing from cancer and performed in a two-year production of Ping Chong’s Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo, a documentary theater piece about the history of the Congo.

Her memoir King Leopold’s Daughter is an exploration of the consequences of colonialism on her family in the context of the Belgian Congo, and is set in her native Belgium, Mexico, Congo and the U.S.

Amy Yee

A first-generation child of immigrants from Hong Kong, Amy Yee is an award-winning American journalist, writer and poet based in India from 2006 to 2013. She was a correspondent for the Financial Times from 1999 to 2008 in New Delhi and New York. From South Asia she reported from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. As a freelance journalist, she has written for the New York Times, The Economist, NPR, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Hunter College, where she won the program’s Academy of American Poets prize, and an MS from Columbia University, and graduated magna cum laude with honors from Wellesley College. Since 2008, she has followed the lives of ordinary Tibetans: Thukjee, a monk and unlikely veterinary assistant; Ngawang, a cook and political refugee; Deckyi, a recent refugee and her husband Dhondup—whose lives painted a portrait of life beyond the the 50th year of Tibetan exile in 2009. 

Far from the Rooftop of the World is a close-up look at the lives of ordinary Tibetans in exile who make their way in the world far from home, and also a window into what it was like to live among them in Dharamsala and to travel to other far flung places that became home. Their stories are told against the backdrop of milestones and events in Tibet’s recent history—some memorable, too many tragic—at home and in exile.

Grace Talusan

Grace Talusan was born in the Philippines and traveled with her parents to the U.S. when she was three years old. She earned an MFA from the University of California, Irvine and has published short stories, long-form journalism, book reviews, and essays. Last year, she traveled to the Philippines as a Fulbright Scholar and lived in Manila for the first time since immigrating. She also teaches writing at Tufts University and Grub Street. 

The Body Papers uses documents, such as test results and legal certificates, as inspiration to explore themes of immigration, trauma, hereditary cancer, and survival in memoir. 

Nikita Nelin

Nikita Nelin was born in Moscow, Russia and immigrated to the U.S in 1989. His work has appeared in Tablet Magazine, Elephant Journal, Mission at Tenth, Electric Literature, and other publications.

The Fifth Season follows Nikita and his mother Natasha’s flight from the crumbling Soviet Union in November of 1989, three days before the Berlin Wall collapses, as they trek across Europe carrying everything they own. They are part of the last great wave of the Soviet Jewry migration and they are thrown into a world of awe, criminality, foreignness, anti-Semitism, and the wretched paranoia of their fellow refugees. For seven months they travel across Europe as their old world and its ideology complete its unraveling, scrounging for resources and subsisting primarily on a potent mix of improvisation and awe with which Natasha imparts their adventure.