The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing is accepting submissions. Established in 2016 to recognize and celebrate the talent of immigrant writers, the prize is awarded in alternating years for a debut book of fiction or nonfiction by a first-generation writer. The winning writer will receive $10,000 and publication by Restless Books. The 2021 award will be given in nonfiction.
Using only the online submission system, submit a complete manuscript or a sample of at least 25,000 words and a proposal by March 31. Writers who have not previously published a book of nonfiction in English are eligible. Writers Francisco Cantú and Shuchi Saraswat and Restless Books publisher Ian Stavans will judge. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
“At a time in which politicians and the media reduce immigrants to mere ciphers,” Stavans told Poets & Writers Magazine in a 2020 article about the prize, “the objective was clear-cut: to do what literature does best . . . by allowing emerging immigrant writers from anywhere and everywhere to tell their own stories.”