Twelve writers were announced today as winners of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, which recognizes outstanding debut short stories published in a literary magazine, journal, or cultural website. Each winner receives a $2,000 cash prize, and their work will be published in Catapult’s annual anthology, Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize.
Chosen for their originality and writerly craft by a panel of accomplished judges, the winning stories deftly navigate the human experience. Collectively, they probe both familiar and unexpected terrain, ranging from tales about a hand taken in an alligator attack to an immigrant’s experience at an American college to a young man who moves to Zambia to sell milk. Though some are set in dystopian futures or distant lands, each one resonates with powerful themes: grief, complicated relationships, capitalism, and technology among them.
Celebrating its 10th year, the prize has introduced emerging talent over its short history, with many winners going on to publish short story collections and novels that enjoyed wide readership, including Ben Shattuck (The History of Sound), Nishanth Injam (The Best Possible Experience), Shannon Sanders (Company), and Willa C. Richards (The Comfort of Monsters). Last year, the titular story from Shattuck’s collection was adapted into a major film starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor.
This year’s winners will receive the prize at the PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on March 31 at The Town Hall in New York City. The judges — Juliet Escoria, Abby Geni, and Chris Stuck — selected the stories from a range of dynamic literary publications. The winning stories are:
“Smith” (The Common) by Cory Beizer
“Tbilisi” (The Good Life Review) by Sara Maria Hasbun
“The Farm” (ZYZZYVA) by Pepe Hernandez
“Summerland” (Salamander) by Taylor Melia Elyse Mahone
“Don’t Worry” (North American Review) by Shelby McDonald
“Girl Name That Starts with B” (The Adroit Journal) by Asyl Ospan
“New Skin for the Old Ceremony” (The Missouri Review) by Arabella Saunders
“Swimmers” (Aster(ix) Journal) by Sabrina Shie
“Rescued Late” (Raleigh Review) by M.J. Steinbach
“Ymelda’s Infinite Eels” (Split Lip Magazine) by A.A. Tojino
“Meteora” (The Los Angeles Review) by Alex Treuber
“A Dog’s Life” (Chicago Quarterly Review) by Yanan Wang
Since 1963, the PEN America Literary Awards have honored outstanding voices in translation, fiction, poetry, science writing, essays, biography, children’s literature, and drama. With the help of our partners, PEN America confers over 20 distinct awards, fellowships, grants and prizes each year, and will confer nearly $350,000 to writers at this year’s ceremony.
Before his death, Robert J. Dau, a lifelong Michigan resident, requested that a prize be established to promote budding writers. He knew that Ernest Hemingway spent summers with his family in northern Michigan and was a contemporary of Dau’s mother. Hemingway spent a winter writing in Dau’s hometown of Petoskey, and Robert loved Hemingway’s connection to his hometown. He also loved that Hemingway wrote his Nick Adams stories about places he knew personally. Dau’s admiration for Hemingway resulted in the creation of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.
