Join us on December 10th, 2025, for an evening celebrating the winners of the 2025 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Eleven of the writers, Steven Archer, Samantha Barrett, brandon brown, Sammi Chiyao, Joanna Demkiewicz, Jason Fernandes, Lara Hughes, Jessie Li, Vince Omni, Megan Tennant, and Zhenglong Yang, will read selections from their award-winning stories, which have been anthologized in Best Debut Short Stories 2025 (Catapult).
These stories are unafraid to explore complex relationships — from the uneasy dynamics between children and parents, lovesick spouses, and wavering fixtures within communities, to the overwhelming sense of embodiment felt by a trans woman reckoning with the ghost of her former self, a young dancer who experiences a sudden, debilitating illness, and the transformative potential of a first physical encounter. Diverse in subject matter, they are unified in answering profound questions of identity, marginalization, and community. These stories peer into what brings us together and pulls us apart, urging us to reckon with who we ultimately are.
We have the pleasure of being joined by Lydi Conklin, one of the 2025 judges, as emcee for the evening. We hope you’ll join us as we celebrate these exciting new voices in fiction.
LYDI CONKLIN is the author of Rainbow Rainbow, which was long-listed for the Story Prize and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. Their fiction has appeared in Tin House, American Short Fiction, and The Paris Review. They’ve drawn comics for The New Yorker, The Believer, Lenny Letter, and other publications. Songs of No Provenance is their first novel.
Every year, the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers recognizes 12 emerging writers for their debut short story published in a literary magazine, journal, or cultural website, and aims to support the launch of their careers as fiction writers. The 12 winning stories are selected by a committee of three judges who are well-respected experts in the art of the short story. The winning writers each receive a $2,000 cash prize and are published by Catapult in their annual anthology, Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize.
The prize is generously supported by the Robert Jensen Dau Foundation and the family of the late Robert J. Dau, whose commitment to the literary arts has made him a fitting namesake for this career-launching prize. Inspired by Dau’s hometown in northern Michigan and its proximity to Walloon Lake, where Ernest Hemingway spent much time and derived inspiration from, the prize promotes emerging voices and spotlights the next generation of fiction writers.