Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Immigrant Stories Challenge 2013



January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013


For the third year, I am proud to host the Immigrant Stories Challenge. As I said in the post announcing the inaugural Immigrant Stories Challenge in 2011, I am the child of immigrants and have always been drawn to immigrant stories in my reading. As I started to pay attention to the theme, I realized it is actually very prevalent in literature. Across many genres, books features immigrants from and to many nations in addition to the stories of their children as they try to fit in.

 The Challenge
 The only requirement of the challenge is that the books read for it include an immigrant story. The immigrants can be coming to or from any country - expand your horizons!

 How Many Books Do I Need to Read?
 There are three levels for the challenge:
 Just off the boat: 1-3 books
 This land is my land?: 4-6 books
 Fully assimilated: 6+ books

 What types of books are eligible? Only fiction? How about audiobooks?
All types of books are eligible - fiction, non-fiction, short stories, audiobooks, e-books. Other details? Re-reads are acceptable as are cross-overs with other challenges. Last year, I tried to post a monthly feature that covered a topic relevant to immigration (and often books) - guest posts from authors of books featuring an immigrant story and or who were immigrants themselves (Rosanna ChiofaloKate KerriganAine Greaney, and Pamela SchoenewaldtJyotsna Sreenivasan). I will be doing the same this year and hope to be a bit more consistent with it than last year! If you are an author of a book with an immigrant theme or are interested in posting about the immigrant experience, please contact me.

 Any book suggestions? You can find recommendations for books that cover the immigrant experience here - this is in no way comprehensive but will give you a start. The link includes titles that have been suggested for the challenge and links to reviews of immigrant stories by past participants.

 What are the dates for the challenge? January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2013. You can sign up anytime. If you are "at capacity" for challenges this year (I know the feeling), I hope you will consider helping to spread the word about the challenge.
For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.