Institute for Immigration Research
New American Voices Award

Founded in 2018, Fall for the Book and the Institute for Immigration Research created an award to recognize recently published works that illuminate the complexity of the human experience as told by immigrants, whose work is historically underrepresented in writing and publishing.

Three jurors will judge all entries for the New American Voices Award and choose three finalists and then award the prize to one. Finalists will be announced during the summer and all three finalists and the judges will appear at the Fall for the Book festival in October for the presentation and to read from and discuss their work. The winning writer will receive $5,000 and the two finalists each will receive $1,000.

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.

Helon Habila

2018 Judge

Submission Guidelines

Submit to the Award

Starting December 4, 2025, publishers can enter immigrant writers* who have published no more than three books.
Entries must be prose: literary fiction or creative nonfiction. Please no journalism, plays, anthologies, or poetry.
Eligible books must have been (or will be) published between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026.
Four bound copies of the book (galleys/ARCs are acceptable) must be postmarked March 31, 2026 and sent to Kara Oakleaf at 4400 University Drive, MS 3E4, Fairfax, VA 22030, along with a $20 entry fee. Checks can be made out to Fall for the Book, Inc.; entry fee may also be paid online here.
For accessibility reasons, please also submit your book digitally. Please email them to kara [at] fallforthebookorg. If no bound copies will be available by the deadline, you may submit digitally only.

*Writers should be immigrants to the U.S., living in the States. They can be first generation by either definition of the term (born elsewhere and immigrated to the U.S., or born in the states to parents who immigrated to the U.S.) Questions? Contact Kara Oakleaf – kara[@]fallforthebook.org

Meet the Judges

Angie Cruz is a novelist and editor. Her most recent novel How Not To Drown in A Glass of Water was a finalist for the 2024 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, shortlisted for The Aspen Words Literary Prize, winner of the Gold Medal, Latino Book Award/The Isabel Allende Most Inspirational Book Award, longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize and chosen for The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2022 and The Washington Post 50 Notable Works of Fiction. Her novel, Dominicana was the inaugural book pick for GMA book club and shortlisted for The Women’s Prize, longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction, a RUSA Notable book and the winner of the ALA/YALSA Alex Award in fiction. Cruz is the author of two other novels, Soledad and Let It Rain Coffee and the recipient of numerous fellowships, residencies and awards including the 2025 USA Fellowship, The Poets & Writers /Writers For Writers Award, and the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature. She’s the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the award winning literary journal, Aster(ix) and teaches at Columbia University.

Donna Hemans is the author of three novels, River Woman, Tea by the Sea, and The House of Plain Truth. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Electric Literature, Ms. Magazine, Oprah Daily, and Crab Orchard Review, among others. She received her undergraduate degree in English and Media Studies from Fordham University and an MFA from American University. She serves on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and is also the owner of DC Writers Room, a co-working studio for writers based in Washington, D.C.

Weike Wang is the author of Chemistry, Joan is Okay, and Rental House. She is the recipient of a Pen Hemingway, a Whiting award and a National Book Foundation 5 under 35. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, Best American Short Stories and has won two O. Henry Prizes. She earned her MFA from Boston University and her other degrees from Harvard. She currently lives in New York City and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Barnard College and Boston University.