Five years ago, Zhenglong Yang found himself at a crossroads: He wanted to write LGBTQ+ fiction, but he knew that Chinese literary magazines would never be willing to publish his work.
So Yang decided he would have to learn another language. Over the course of the pandemic, he began to teach himself English by purchasing books he had already read in Chinese and translating them one word at a time. He slowly became a stronger reader, and eventually he gained enough comfort with the language to begin writing in it.
In 2025, Yang, now an MFA student at UT Austin, saw his hard work pay off. His debut short story, “Ride Me Up To Heaven,” was published in Issue 56 of StoryQuaterly and was selected as one of 12 winners of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.
“That’s a dream come true,” he said. “That’s all I wanted five years ago. I wanted the story I wanted to tell to be seen and to be read. … It’s so special to me.”
Supported by the family foundation of the late Robert Jensen Dau, the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers 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 is published in Catapult’s annual anthology, Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize.
Many past winners of the prize, including Ben Shattuck (The History of Sound), Nishanth Injam (The Best Possible Experience), and Shannon Sanders (Company), have gone on to publish short story collections. Earlier this year, the titular story from Shattuck’s collection was adapted into a major film starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor.
The 2025 winners convened to celebrate and share excerpts from their works at a virtual reading in December. One of the three judges for the prize, Lydi Conklin, emphasized just how finely crafted they all were.
“We read through piles of incredibly worthy submissions to choose the authors you will hear from tonight,” they said. “The stories that made it through all of the rounds are absolutely stellar. They had to be to make it.”
Lara Hughes, who won the prize for her story “The Faraday Cage,” which follows a widow and her son as they move to a West Virginia town following the son’s expulsion from school, said she could tell that she was in great company at the reading. Though she had read the other stories in the anthology beforehand, her appreciation for them deepened after hearing them read aloud in each writer’s voice.
“It’s such a true honor just to be among these other debut stories, and the resonances, the way they speak to each other, are beautiful,” Hughes said.
Sam Barrett, whose story “Invert” explores the ways identity can shift in response to traumatic events, expressed enthusiasm about the doors that winning the prize might open for her. Her submissions to other publications might be considered more seriously, she said, and she might have more opportunities to talk with professionals in the literary world.
When Barrett first received news of the prize, she could hardly believe it. “Over the day in which it happened, I rechecked [the email] over and over again, because I was just like, ‘Did I imagine that? Did I misread that?’” she said. “I had to just repeatedly remind myself that I actually did receive this award, that I hadn’t just totally confabulated it.”
When she at last got her hands on her own copy of the anthology, it still felt “surreal,” Barrett said.
“At the end of the day, it just means a lot to have people believe in your work,” Hughes said. “To have it go from the initial publication…to this big thing is really so special.”
Purchase your own copy of the anthology here, and learn more about PEN America’s other literary awards here.
