Finalists Named for Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award

Award ceremony to be held October 13, 2022, 7:30pm

Finalists Named for Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award

Sindya Bhanoo’s Seeking Fortune Elsewhere, Daphne Palasi Andreades’s Brown Girls, and Aamina Ahmad’s The Return of Faraz Ali have been named finalists for the Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award. Celebrating its 5th anniversary, this post-publication award recognizes recently published works that illuminate the complexity of human experience as told by immigrants, whose work is historically underrepresented in writing and publishing. This year’s book prize was judged by Patricia Engel, Huan Hsu, and Christopher Castellani. Engel won the 2021 New American Voices Award, and joined the ranks of previous winners Hernan Diaz, Melissa Rivero, and Lysley Tenorio.

"I am so pleased that now, in its fifth year, the Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award, has attracted such a number and range of talented authors,” said Jim Witte, director of the Institute for Immigration Research, which sponsors the award. “The Institute's mission is to highlight and humanize the immigrant experience and this is exactly what this year's three finalists have accomplished."

The winner will be announced this fall, and all three finalists will join the judges for an award ceremony and reading to discuss their work.  The event will be hosted by Fall for the Book on Thursday, October 13 at 7:30 p.m. at George Mason University’s Fairfax, VA Campus.