Fall for the Book

The three finalists for the inaugural Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award will each read from their books before the grand prize is awarded. Hernán Díaz is the author of the novel In the Distance, Elena Georgiou is the author of the story collection The Immigrant’s Refrigerator, and Renee Macalino Rutledge is the author of the novel The Hour of Daydreams. This post-publication book prize was created to recognize recently published works that illuminate the complexity of human experience as told by immigrants, whose work is historically underrepresented in writing and publishing. Helon Habila, Madeleine Thien, and Maaza Mengiste judged. When speaking about the prize, Habila said: “if America is a country of immigrants as it is often described, then the quintessential American literature would be the literature of immigration…  Hopefully these new voices will make us step back and look at ourselves with new eyes, and new hope and new meaning.” Sponsored by the Institute for Immigration Research.