| Sumario: | Situated at the intersection of international relations, the sociology of literature, translation studies, textual analysis, and global literary studies, this article focuses on Restless Books' consecratory practices (publication of translated literature and prizing) to shift the directionality of traditional soft power studies and draw attention to the role of literature in shaping political discourses. The article highlights the agency of non-state actors and independent presses such as Restless Books in co-opting national discourse and putting forward more inclusive notions of cultural and linguistic identity. Restless Books is a US-based independent, nonprofit publisher of international literature in English and the organizer of the Prize for New Immigrant Writing, one of the few awards in the US to specifically recognize emerging writers with an immigrant background. Through the publication of translations and the promotion of marginalized voices, Restless Books brings more diversity to the cultural field and questions national values and foreign policies. By examining the publisher's editorial policy and consecratory practices and linking them to innovations at the textual level through a close reading of Rajiv Hohabir's Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir, one of the prize-winning books, we demonstrate the necessity of interdisciplinary approaches to literature, soft power, and translation that link text and context in more direct ways.
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