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.

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.

"My first languages were Yiddish and Spanish, then came Hebrew, English, and others," Stavans stated. "My last -- and most enduring -- language is Spanglish. I wrote about my immigrant journey in my book 'On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language'. I have been fascinated with diasporas from as early as I can remember; in 2008, I edited an anthology called Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing."

Throughout his career, Stavans complained that only three percent of books published in the U.S. annually are translations from other languages. "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," he explained.

"The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing is a way for me to stop complaining and do something about it," Stavans added. "Now that I have gone from writing books to publishing them as well, I want to open doors to first-rate writers whose immigrant odysseys need to be heard widely."

In conversation with Stavans, he also expressed exhaustion with the anti-immigrant rhetoric in American politics, fueled by politicians such as Donald Trump. To combat anti-immigrant attitudes, Restless Books has opted to seek out superb writers, who are comfortable in their skin and their language, and "able to deliver stories about migration writ large, with plots capable of making us reconsider our most basic premises. It isn't enough to have a gorgeous story to tell; it is crucial to tell it gorgeously."

The publisher seeks books originally written in English, in all its elasticity, or complete English translations from other languages. They're also searching for non-doctrinaire approaches to immigration. In layman's terms, they're looking for creative explorations, through fiction, of what it means to be an immigrant.

Restless Books promises to not only give its award to best, most memorable entry, but they will put forth all of their efforts to promote the winner. They will find the right audience for the prized book, and put will put the book in the right laps.

Accomplished booksellers, cultural agents and editors, Ethiopian-American novelist Maaza Mengiste and the Uruguayan-American bookseller Javier Molea , will judge the annual prize alongside Stavans. The prize will alternate between fiction and nonfiction, beginning with fiction this year. Restless Books will annually unearth fresh, palatable immigrant stories offered by first-generation authors, establishing a prize that not only strikes a chord but "becomes a staple, allowing people to expect first-rate immigrant writing on a regular basis." According to Stavans, the themes of migration and adaptation are inexhaustible, and so many immigrant memoirs and stories have already deeply impacted American culture.

The winner of the prize will be awarded $10,000 and publication by Restless Books. Manuscripts must be completed and submitted in English (translations welcome). Candidates must be first-generation residents of the U.S. and submissions cannot previously be published in English. There's no fee, and the fiction submission period is between September and December, and the nonfiction submission period is Fall 2016. To enter, writers can visit the Restless Books website.

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