Independent Publisher Launches Annual Prize to Boost Emerging Immigrant Voices
*The words Independent Publisher make this story worthy. Just think, would a big box, mainstream publisher have thought of a prize for emerging immigrant writers? This is what we mean by owning our own narrative, being our own voice. This is exactly what we’re about, so well done to Ilan Stavans and Restless Books! VL
By Nicole Akoukou Thompson, Latin Post
Enthusiastic about international literature and the growth of immigrant prose in the U.S., independent publisher Restless Books has chosen to introduce a yearly prize to fill the void and beckon emerging immigrant voices.
[pullquote][tweet_dis]For a country with a fiber built by immigrants, there should be more, and better established, forums where immigrants are able to publish their stories for a mainstream audience.[/tweet_dis][/pullquote]The rich stories that immigrants tell are essential and contribute to the nation’s cultural consciousness. In its first year, The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing will foster emerging writers of “sharp, culture-straddling writing that addresses American identity in a global age” and it will help to increase the number of plucky immigrant-authored books populating book shelves.
Ilan Stavans, Publisher of Restless Books and the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, spoke with Latin Post, discussing his interest in immigrant voices and the Restless Book Prize. Born in Mexico to a family of immigrants (Polish, Belarusian) who settled in Mexico in the 1920s, he moved to the United States in the 1980s.
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[Photo Kevin Gutting/Latin Post]
