A ONE-OF-A-KIND ANTHOLOGY OF THE WORLD’S LINGUA FRANCA: Featuring a tremendous array of letters, poems, memoir, jeremiads, documents, stories, songs, standup comedy and more by more than 100 English speakers across history—from Julia Alvarez to Dr. Seuss, David Foster Wallace to Amy Tan, Chang-Rae Lee to Russell Hoban, James Baldwin to Jhumpa Lahiri, Susan Sontag to E.B. White, Kendrick Lamar to Donald Trump—THE PEOPLE’S TONGUE is a fascinating overview of the power and uniqueness of the English language as shaped by Americans.

AN AMERICAN TRADITION OF LANGUAGE OBSESSION: THE PEOPLE’S TONGUE follows in the footsteps of a wide array of bestselling tomes about language, including Bill Bryson’s Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States, Simon Winchester’s The Professor and the Madman, John McWhorter’s Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, and Benjamin Dreyer’s recent hit, Dreyer's English.

A CELEBRATION OF RESTLESS BOOKS’ FIRST TEN YEARS: The publication of THE PEOPLE’S TONGUE kicks off a year-long celebration of Restless Books’ first decade of publishing, with over one hundred works of fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature from 38 countries, translated into English from 23 languages, and featuring English-language debuts of 44 notable international authors. THE PEOPLE’S TONGUE will be centered at events Restless is planning all year long.

NATIONWIDE EVENTS: Ilan Stavans and Restless will host events across the country to promote THE PEOPLE’S TONGUE, in California, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Boston, New York, and elsewhere. Likely venues include the 92nd Street Y, the Tenement Museum (NYC), the American Writers Museum (Chicago), The New York Historical Society, and the Skirball Center (LA). Contributor event partners include TK TK TK.

A SLEW OF INTERVIEWS AND OP-EDS: The host of the NPR podcast “In Contrast,” Stavans will do interviews with NPR, PBS Newshour, and various blogs. A regular op-ed contributor for various outlets, he will write op-eds in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.

A WELL-CONNECTED EDITOR: Stavans can call on his many contacts in the media for reviews and endorsements. Potential blurbers include David Brooks, Bret Stephens, Jill Lapore, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Maxine Hong Kingston, Robert Pinsky, and Rita Dove.

A CONVERSATION STARTER: THE PEOPLE’S TONGUE will be a starting point for a national discussion on the American language and will appeal to countless organizations, cultural institutions, and media outlets.

© 2023 Restless Books (Ebook): 9781632062666

Release date

Ebook: 14 February 2023