Reading is Resistance: help Restless Books champion diversity, immigrant culture, global voices, and great books—when we need them most!
Restless Books is a newly nonprofit, independent publisher devoted to stories that speak to us across linguistic and cultural borders. In a few short years, we’ve published celebrated English editions of eye-opening work from places as diverse as Cuba, Malaysia, Madagascar, Iceland, Pakistan, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Russia, Israel, and many more. In 2015, we launched the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing to celebrate the rich contributions to culture immigrants make. And now, at a time when anti-global, anti-diversity, anti-literary forces are growing, we are determined to resist—by amplifying voices that are suppressed or neglected and expanding our understanding of the world through fearless international publishing. Your help is essential in keeping the reading resistance strong!
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We need your help to become a sustainable nonprofit
At the turn of 2017, Restless solidified our longstanding commitment to immigrant culture and diverse global literature by becoming a nonprofit. That status allows us to make new connections among authors, readers, and patrons of the arts. It means we can prioritize literary excellence and our global ethos over the dictates of the market. Nonprofit funding, however, takes time to develop, and in the meantime, we need your help.
Many of our indie publishing heroes have found success under a nonprofit model, such as Graywolf Press, The New Press, Archipelago Books, and Coffee House Press. These publishers have cyclical fundraising through government and corporate grants, foundation support, and individual donors. Restless is now incorporated as a nonprofit at the state level and we are awaiting 501(c)3 status from the IRS, which will allow us to apply for more grants and accept tax-deductible gifts. To tide us over during the four to six months the application takes to process, we’ve turned to Indiegogo to reach readers directly and sidestep the red tape while our own fundraising cycle kicks into gear.
Your support will make a real impact!
Your contribution will support phenomenal international authors and translators and help them connect them with readers eager to hear their voices. You'll benefit some exciting new and ongoing projects as well:
Think of the last time you discovered something wonderful, surprising, eye-opening, or even life-changing on the page. You can help recreate that experience for countless others by helping Restless Books thrive. Come on and join the reading resistance!
The economics
Until we find the next Elena Ferrante, Roberto Bolaño, or Karl Ove Knausgaard, we're operating on a relatively small scale, which presents its own challenges. Smaller print runs are more expensive per-copy to produce and yield modest revenue. On the indie scale, even books that sell out their print runs end up breaking even. With nonprofit funding, we can ensure authors, translators, and staff are properly compensated, and we can continue to take editorial risks and publish creatively and ambitiously.
What you get
In addition to earning our undying gratitude and the tremendous feeling of supporting international authors and translators, every supporter of our Indiegogo campaign will get a shout-out on a special page of our website. And we've got some other fun ways of saying thank you....
Reading is Resistance swag—choose from two logos
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Signed books from one-of-a-kind authors
Yoss: rock star of Cuban Science Fiction
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Alejandro Jodorowsky: legendary filmmaker, Tarot master, spiritual guru, and novelist
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Oddny Eir: a Björk collaborator's erotic and philosophical autofiction
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Copies of The Face—signed for you personally by the author!
Ruth Ozeki
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Chris Abani
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Tash Aw
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International Jewish fiction hardcover set
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Together we can make it happen!
Other ways you can help
Read the books:
Visit our bookstore for the latest and greatest international reads.
Spread the word:
Tell your friends, share the campaign, tweet, post, instagram, blog, shout, dance, etc!
Stay tuned:
Sign up for our Newsletter, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and check out our blog for updates.
Our team
Ilan Stavans, Publisher
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Nathan Rostron, Editor and Marketing Director
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Brinda Ayer, Managing Editor
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Jack Saul, Assistant Editor
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Alicia Lopez, Editorial Assistant
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Annette Hochstein, Editor-at-Large
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Gaby Flores, Intern
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Rafaela Bassili, Intern
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Sabine Kwan, Intern
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Delia Davis, Intern
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Sophia Ramos, Intern
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Our authors, translators, and contributors
Our growing list of authors, translators, and artists from around the world:
CHRIS ABANI, Author, Nigeria
JALAL AL-E AHMAD, Author, Iran
JON LEE ANDERSON, Introducer, United States
LAURA ATWOOD DURAN, Author, United States
TASH AW, Author, Malaysia
JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA, Poet, United States
THOMAS BUNSTEAD, Translator, United Kingdom
SEAN GASPER BYE, Translator, United States
NICK CAISTOR, Translator, United Kingdom
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES, Author, Spain
ROBERT CHANDLER, Translator, United Kingdom
ALLISON M. CHARETTE, Translator, United States
RICARDO PIGLIA, Author, Argentina
LAURA C. DAIL, Translator, United Kingdom
SIMIN DANESHVAR, Author, Iran
ISAAC DIGGS, Author, United States
PAQUITO D'RIVERA, Author, Cuba
W. E. B. DU BOIS, Author, United States
ODDNÝ EIR, Author, Iceland
EKO, Illustrator, Mexico
ALISON ENTREKIN, Translator, Australia
CAROL ERMAKOVA, Translator, United Kingdom
WILL EVANS, Translator, United States
MUSHARRAF ALI FAROOQI, Author, Pakistan
CARLOS FONSECA, Author, Costa Rica/United Kingdom
DAVID FRYE, Translator, United Kingdom
SILVANA GANDOLFI, Author, Italy
ARNO GEIGER, Author, Austria
HILLEL HALKIN, Translator, United States/Israel
SHULAMITH HAREVEN, Author, Poland/Israel
GITHA HARIHARAN, Author, India
BARBARA HARSHAV, Translator, United States
EDWARD HILLEL, Author, United States
MAREK S. HUBERATH, Author, Poland
HAMID ISMAILOV, Author, Uzbekistan/United Kingdom
ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY, Author, Chile
MICHAEL KANDEL, Translator, United States
YORAM KANIUK, Author, Israel/United States
OLEG KASHIN, Author, Russia/Switzerland
JEFFREY LAWRENCE, Translator, United States
JOANNA KAVENNA, Introducer, United Kingdom
ALFRED MACADAM, Translator, United States
RICHARD MARNIER, Author, France
AUDE MAUREL, Illustrator, France
MEGAN MCDOWELL, Translator, United States/Chile
ROSARIO MORENO, Translator, Cuba
NAIVO, Author, Madagascar
ANDRÉS NEUMAN, Author, Argentina/Spain
VANN R. NEWKIRK II, Introducer, United States
TAL NITZÁN, Author, Israel
ACHY OBEJAS, Translator, Cuba/United States
JOHN ORMSBY, Translator, United Kingdom
RUTH OZEKI, Author, Canada/United States
ORLANDO LUIS PARDO LAZO, Author, Cuba
MARY JO PORTER, Translator, United States
HEBE POWELL, Translator, United Kingdom
FRANCINE PROSE, Introducer, United States
STEVE PRINCE, Illustrator, United States
SANTHA RAMA RAU, Author, India/United States
AGUSTÍN DE ROJAS, Author, Cuba
PHILIP ROUGHTON, Translator, United States/Iceland
SAMUEL RUTTER, Translator, Australia/United States
KIRA SALAK, Author, United States/Germany
CRISTINA SÁNCHEZ-ANDRADE, Author, Spain
ARSHIA SATTAR, Author, India/United States
LAWRENCE SCHIMEL, Author, United States/Spain
MAX SEDDON, Introducer, Germany
MARY SHELLEY, Author, United Kingdom
DAVID SHOOK, Translator, Mexico/United States
ANA SIMO, Author, Cuba/United States
LAVINIA SPALDING, Introducer, United States
GYÖRGY SPIRÓ, Author, Hungary
FILIP SPRINGER, Author, Poland
ILAN STAVANS, Publisher, Introducer, & Video Lecturer, Mexico/United States
WENDY STEINER, Video Lecturer, United States
PACO IGNACIO TAIBO II, Author, Spain/Mexico
VÍCTOR TERÁN, Author, Mexico
SAMUEL THROPE, Translator, United States/Israel
STEFAN TOBLER, Translator, Brazil/United Kingdom
FERNANDA TORRES, Author, Brazil
FRANCES TROLLOPE, Author, United Kingdom
DEEPAK UNNIKRISHNAN, Author, United Arab Emirates/United States
CARLOS VELÁZQUEZ, Author, Mexico
JUAN VILLORO, Author, Mexico
EDITH WHARTON, Author, United States
SARA WHEELER, Introducer, United Kingdom
TIM WILKINSON, Translator, United Kingdom
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT, Author, United Kingdom
XIAO HAI, Author, China
YOSS, Author, Cuba
ADRIAN NATHAN WEST, Translator, Spain/United States
ZHU YU, Translator, China
JORGE ZEPEDA PATTERSON, Author, Mexico
SONALI ZOHRA, Illustrator, India