The KELLMAN Prize for Immigrant LITERATURE
PRIZE OVERVIEW
In 2015, the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing was created to honor outstanding debut literary works by first-generation immigrants whose work examines how immigration shapes our lives, our communities, and our world. For the tenth anniversary of the prize, Restless Books’ unstintingly generous board member, Steven G. Kellman—whose grandparents were immigrants to the United States—endowed the prize so that it may continue in perpetuity. The award will now be known as the Kellman Prize for Immigrant Literature. The winner receives $10,000, a writing residency from Millay Arts, and publication by Restless Books. Beginning in 2025, the prize no longer alternates between fiction and nonfiction, but accepts submissions in both genres each year.
The 2025 finalists were announced by The Common—please enjoy samples of their brilliant work at the link. The winner of the 2025 Restless Books Kellman Prize is Stephen Narain, announced by LitHub on December 8.
Submissions for the 2026 prize will be open from January 1 through May 31, 2026. Click here for guidelines and eligibility details.
Prize PHILOSOPHY
The ethos of the modern world is defined by immigrants. Their stories have always been an essential component of our cultural consciousness, from Isaac Bashevis Singer to Isabel Allende, from Milan Kundera to Yiyun Li. In novels, short stories, memoirs, and works of journalism, 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.
With that in mind, we are proud to present the Kellman Prize for Immigrant Literature. We are looking for extraordinary unpublished submissions from emerging immigrant writers of sharp, culture-straddling writing that addresses identity in a global age. Each year, a distinguished panel of judges will select a winning manuscript to be published by Restless Books. We can’t wait to read and share what the new voices of the world have to say.
“Few literary prizes are devoted to the celebration of immigrant writing. Fewer still are dedicated to providing a platform for immigrant writers by publishing their work. Chief among these is the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing . . . In Restless Books, writers have found a press that champions new voices that push boundaries of form and content.”
2026 JUDGES
Terry Hong
Terry Hong reviews extensively for Booklist, Library Journal, School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Shelf Awareness. She created BookDragon, an extensive book blog for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, where she was a media arts consultant for eight years. She was an inaugural advisor for Girl Rising, highlighting girls’ education, and writer wrangler for the Girl Rising film. She taught in Duke University’s Leadership in the Arts, a New York City-based performance and public policy program. She co-authored two books, Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture from Astro Boy to Zen Buddhism and What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature. She’s served/chaired various award committees, including the Andrew Carnegie Medals, USBBY’s Outstanding International Books, Hans Christian Andersen Award U.S. nominations, We Need Diverse Books’ Walter Awards, and the Audies. She won American Library Association’s 2021 CODES Louis Shores Award for excellence in book reviewing. She holds degrees from Dartmouth College and Yale University.
Anderson Tepper
Anderson Tepper is curator of international literature at City of Asylum in Pittsburgh, where he hosts a monthly author series. He has been a regular guest curator of PEN America’s World Voices Festival and is a longtime member of the international committee of the Brooklyn Book Festival. Formerly of Vanity Fair, his writing on books and authors has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Words Without Borders, and World Literature Today, among other places.
Ilan Stavans
Ilan Stavans is the Publisher of Restless Books and the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His books include On Borrowed Words, Spanglish, Dictionary Days, The Disappearance, and A Critic’s Journey. He has edited The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, the three-volume set Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories, The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, among dozens of other volumes. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Chile’s Presidential Medal, the International Latino Book Award, and the Jewish Book Award. Stavans’s work, translated into twenty languages, has been adapted to the stage and screen. A cofounder of the Great Books Summer Program at Amherst, Stanford, Chicago, Oxford, and Dublin, he is the host of the NPR podcast “In Contrast.”
Past Winners
