Shubha Sunder Wins 8th Annual New American Voices Award

Fairfax, VA (October 10, 2025) – On Thursday, October 9, Shubha Sunder won the 8th Annual Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award for her novel Optional Practical Training: A Novel. Judge Marie Myung-Ok Lee presented the award at George Mason’s Center for the Arts after an evening of literary conversation and readings. The post-publication book prize recognizes recently published works that illuminate the complexity of the human experience as told by immigrants, whose work is historically underrepresented in writing and publishing. Sunder received a glass book as well as the top prize of $5,000. 

Sunder was joined by finalists Olufunke Grace Bankole, author of The Edge of Water and Cristina Jiménez, author Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear into Pride, Power, and Real Change. Myung-Ok Lee moderated a conversation between all three finalists, before each read a selection from their works, and then the naming of the winner.

In response to Myung-Ok Lee’s question about the structure of the novel and the question of how we define home, Sunder said: “To me, as an immigrant, it makes sense that sometimes the primary role of an immigrant is to be an observer, rather than a prime mover. I’m … not so much concerned with the events… of an immigrant novel, as I am with the interior landscapes of an immigrant… Part of the immigrant experience is a transformation of identity, and I think that comes about through conversations.”