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 respected experts in the art of the short story. The winning writers each receive a $2,000 cash prize, and their winning stories will be published by Autumn House Press in the annual anthology, Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize.
The prize is generously supported by the family of the late Robert J. Dau, whose commitment to the literary arts 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 the first 22 summers of his life and which provided much inspiration for his early stories, the prize promotes emerging voices and spotlights the next generation of fiction writers.
Submissions for the 2027 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize are now open! The deadline for submissions is September 1.
2026 Winners
Judges: Juliet Escoria, Abby Geni, Chris Stuck
Cory Beizer, “Smith” (The Common)
Sara Maria Hasbun, “Tbilisi” (The Good Life Review)
Pepe Hernandez, “The Farm” (ZYZZYVA)
Taylor Melia Elyse Mahone, “Summerland” (Salamander)
Shelby McDonald, “Don’t Worry” (North American Review)
Asyl Ospan, “Girl Name That Starts with B” (The Adroit Journal)
Arabella Saunders, “New Skin for the Old Ceremony” (The Missouri Review)
Sabrina Shie, “Swimmers” (Aster(ix) Journal)
M.J. Steinbach, “Rescued Late” (Raleigh Review)
A.A. Tojino, “Ymelda’s Infinite Eels” (Split Lip Magazine)
Alex Treuber, “Meteora” (The Los Angeles Review)
Yanan Wang, “A Dog’s Life” (Chicago Quarterly Review)
History
Previous Winners
2025
Judges: Lydi Conklin, Dionne Irving, Brenda Peynado
Steven Archer, “Burrowing Creatures” (AGNI)
Samantha Barrett, ”Invert” (Foglifter Journal)
Brandon Brown, ”Faultline” (Split Lip Magazine)
Sammi Chiyao, ”Corn Soup” (Peatsmoke Journal)
Joanna R. Demkiewicz, ”Elastic” (Midwest Review)
Jason Fernandes, ”Lovesick” (North American Review)
Lara Hughes, ”The Faraday Cage” (The Arkansas International)
Celine Ipek, ”A Resting Place” (McSweeney’s Quarterly)
Jessie Li, ”Mouth and Heart” (StoryQuarterly)
Vince Omni, ”The Diaspora Café” (Michigan Quarterly Review)
Megan Tennant, ”Little Women” (The Common)
Zhenglong Yang, ”Ride Me Up to Heaven” (Story Quarterly)
2024
Judges: Sindya Bhanoo, Sidik Fofana, Ayşegül Savaş
Josie Abugov, “Daisy the Whale” (The Sewanee Review)
Annie Barnett, “What Child Is This?” (New England Review)
Jason Baum, “Rocket” (Bellevue Literary Review)
Alex Boeden, “Alfhild” (The Cincinnati Review)
Winelle Felix, “Return to Sender: Big Time Tief” (Transition Magazine)
Zkara Gaillard, “A Good Word” (Transition Magazine)
Leanne Ma, “Guilty Parties” (Salamander Magazine)
Benjamin Van Voorhis, “Patience” (Salamander Magazine)
2023
Judges: Venita Blackburn, Richard Chiem, Dantiel Moniz
Jo Saleska Lange, “Acts of Creation” (Peatsmoke)
Ren Arcamone, “Allen” (HEAT)
Stephenjohn Holgate, “Delroy and the Boys” (West Trade Review)
Verity McKay, “Filth” (Hypertext Magazine)
Mengyin Lin, “Magic or Something Less Assuring” (Epiphany)
Annabelle Ulaka, “My Grandmother’s Feline Soul” (West Trade Review)
Sonia Feldman, “Outgrowth” (Waxwing Magazine)
Clara Mundy, “Schism in a Soul So Tender” (Apricity Magazine)
Dailihana Alfonseca, “Spanish Soap Operas Killed My Mother” (Driftwood Press)
Faire Holliday, “Standing Still” (The Cincinnati Review)
Patrick J. Zhou, “Taidu” (Carve Magazine)
Lisa Wartenberg, “What is Ours” (Nimrod International Journal)
2022
Judges: Sabrina Orah Mark, Emily Nemens, Deesha Philyaw
Yasmin Adele Majeed, “A Wedding in Multan, 1978” (The Asian American Literary Review)
Oyedotun Damilola Muees, “All We Have Left is Ourselves” (Reckoning)
Emma Shannon, “Beat by Beat” (Barrelhouse Magazine)
Patch Kirschenbaum, “For Future Reference: Notes on the 7-10 Split” (The Cincinnati Review)
Cal Shook, “Man, Man, Et Cetera” (The Virginia Quarterly Review)
Edward Salem, “Sacrilege” (BOMB Magazine)
Erin Connal, “The Black Kite and the Wind” (Virginia Quarterly Review)
Seth Wang, “The Cacophobe” (Ploughshares)
RZ Baschir, “The Chicken” (The White Review)
CK Kane, “Them Bones” (Hobart)
Preeti Vangani, “Work Wives” (Typehouse Literary Magazine)
Catherine Bai, “Writing with Blood” (Flock)
2021
Judges: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Beth Piatote
Heather Aruffo, “Force, Mass, Acceleration” (The Southern Review)
Lindsay Ferguson, “Good Girls” (Barrelhouse)
Isaac Hughes Green, “The First Time I Said It” (The Georgia Review)
Amy Haejung, “Maria” (Waxwing Magazine)
Nishanth Injam, “The Math of Living” (Virginia Quarterly Review)
Khaddafina Mbabazi, “Transit” (Virginia Quarterly Review)
Mackenzie McGee, “Re:Frankie” (Porter House Review)
Mathapelo Mofokeng, “The Strong-Strong Winds” (adda)
Alberto Reyes Morgan, “Salt” (Michigan Quarterly Review)
Stanley Patrick Stocker, “The List” (Kestrel: A Journal of Literature and Art)
Pardeep Toor, “Taxi” (Midwest Review)
Qianze Zhang, “Mandy’s Mary Sue” (Sine Theta Magazine)
2020
Judges: Tracy O’Neill, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Deb Olin Unferth
Damitri Martinez, “Bat Outta Hell” (Foglifter Journal)
Valerie Hegarty, “Cats vs. Cancer” (New England Review)
Sena Moon, “Dog Dreams” (Quarterly West)
Matthew Jeffrey Vegari, “Don’t Go to Strangers” (Zyzzyva)
Ani Sison Cooney, “Evangelina Concepcion” (Epiphany)
Willa Richards, “Failure to Thrive” (The Paris Review)
Kristen Sahaana Surya, “Gauri Kalyanam” (The Rumpus)
Mbozi Haimbe, “Madam’s Sister” (Granta)
Mohit Manohar, “Summertime” (Michigan Quarterly Review)
Shannon Sanders, “The Good, Good Men” (Puerto del Sol, Black Voices Series)
David Kelly Lawrence, “The Other Child” (The Threepenny Review)
Kikuko Tsumura, translated by Polly Barton, “The Water Tower and the Turtle” (Granta)
2019
Judges: Danielle Evans, Alice Sola Kim, Carmen Maria Machado
Sarah Curry, “The Rickies” (Nimrod Journal)
Laura Freudig, “Mother and Child” (The Sun)
Doug Henderson, “The Manga Artist” (The Iowa Review)
Enyeribe Ibegwan, “Good Hope” (Auburn Avenue)
Pingmei Lan, “Cicadas and the Dead Chairman” (Epiphany)
John Paul Infante, “Without a Big One” (Kweli Journal)
Tamiko Beyer, “Last Days, Part 1” (Black Warrior Review)
Marilyn Manolakas, “Tornado Season” (Alaska Quarterly Review)
Erin Singer, “Bad Northern Women” (Conjunctions)
Kelsey Peterson, “The Unsent Letters of Blaise and Jacqueline Pascal” (Conjunctions)
Jade Jones, “Today, You’re a Black Revolutionary” (The Rumpus)
A. B. Young, “Vain Beasts” (Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet)
2018
Judges: Jodi Angel, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Alexandra Kleeman
Elinam Agbo, “1983” (The Baltimore Review)
Lin King, “Appetite” (SLICE)
Lauren Friedlander, “Bellevonia Beautee” (The Rumpus)
Alex Terrell, “Black Dog” (Black Warrior Review)
Grayson Morley, “Brent, Bandit King” (The Brooklyn Review)
Megan Tucker, “Candidates” (Washington Square Review)
Cristina Fries, “New Years in La Calera” (EPOCH)
Celeste Mohammed, “Six Months New” (New England Review)
Ernie Wang, “Stay Brave, My Hercules” (McSweeney’s)
Maud Streep, “The Crazies” (One Story)
Ava Tomasula y Garcia, “Videoteca Fin del Mundo” (Black Warrior Review)
Drew McCutchen, “Zombie Horror” (The Baltimore Review)
2017
Judges: Marie-Helene Bertino, Kelly Link, Nina McConigley
Angela Ajayi, “Galina” (Fifth Wednesday Journal)
Amber Caron, “The Handler” (Southwest Review)
Emily Chammah, “Tell Me, Please” (The Common)
Jim Cole, “The Asphodel Meadow” (The Summerset Review)
Crystal Hana Kim, “Solee” (The Southern Review)
Samuel Clare Knights, “The Manual Alphabet” (Fence)
Katherine Magyarody, “Goldhawk” (The Malahat Review)
Grace Oluseyi, “A Modern Marriage” (Boston Review)
Laura Chow Reeve, “1,000-Year-Old Ghosts” (Hyphen Magazine)
Amy Sauber, “State Facts for the New Age” (The Rumpus)
Ruth Serven, “A Message” (Epiphany: A Literary Journal)
Ben Shattuck, “Edwin Chase of Nantucket” (Harvard Review)
Eligibility
- Stories must be submitted by editors of literary magazines, journals, or cultural websites published in English. Publications may be based and/or distributed anywhere in the world, so long as the story submitted was originally written and published in English. Authors may not submit their own work.
- Eligible publications include literary magazines, journals, or cultural websites published on a recurring schedule.
- All submitted stories must be published by a literary magazine, journal, or cultural website between January 1 and December 31 of the current year.
- Self-published stories are ineligible.
- Editors from eligible publications may only submit a writer’s debut short story. “Debut” is defined as the writer’s absolute first fiction publication in any language, which has undergone an editorial review process and been accepted and published in a literary outlet that the author is not academically or professionally associated with. Translations are ineligible.
- Writers who have published one or more books which have undergone editorial review or have a large body of published work are ineligible.
- Stories with more than one original author are ineligible.
- Please see our FAQ for more details.
Submission Guidelines
- PEN America will only accept submissions from editors of literary magazines, journals, or cultural websites. Authors may not submit their own stories.
- Editors from eligible publications may submit up to four stories from debut authors in a given award year. Stories may not exceed 12,000 words in length.
- Please submit verified email addresses on the submission form. Your order cannot be processed without an email address.
- Upload a PDF file of the story to the submission form. Story submissions will be read as PDF files. Please upload the file saved as STORYTITLE_AUTHORNAME.
- Once a submitted story is received and reviewed for eligibility by PEN America, it will be passed along to the judges. Please add [email protected] to your address book, as it will be the main point of contact from PEN America.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Are writers still eligible if they have published poetry and/or nonfiction before?
A: Yes, so long as the story submitted is the writer’s first published piece of fiction. However, writers who have published one or more books of poetry, nonfiction, or other writing which has undergone editorial review are ineligible for the prize.
Q: The story I plan to submit does not fit the exact formatting specifications (Times New Roman, 12 pt. font, double-spaced). Do I need to reformat?
A: We understand that many literary journals publish stories according to their formatting conventions and that therefore, the style of the PDFs does not conform to the formatting specifications. If the copy is legible online and in hard copy, you do not need to reformat.
Q: We would like to nominate an author who had a short story published in another online magazine almost simultaneously. We accepted the writer’s story first, but the magazine published their work first. Which publication is eligible to submit?
A: We consider only whichever work was available to the public first. If this situation presents itself as an issue, please write to [email protected] for more clarification.
Q: An author has previously published work on a blog or as a part of a school project. Are they still eligible?
A: An author becomes ineligible if the previous work underwent an editorial review process with a publication the author was not affiliated with academically or professionally. Blog posts that have not been reviewed by an editor do not render the writer ineligible.
Q: The author I wish to nominate has a piece that was accepted to our magazine this year, but the story will be published next year. Can I still submit their work for the current awards cycle?
A: Submitted stories must be published and available to the public during the current calendar year; prizes are awarded in the following year. For example, for the 2027 awards cycle, only stories published in 2026 are eligible. Stories published in 2027, should be submitted during that calendar year for the 2028 awards cycle.
Q: Can I submit PDFs from our forthcoming fall or winter issue?
A: Yes. You may submit PDFs for forthcoming stories as long as they are published by the end of the required calendar year.
Q: If an author has only published one short story during their career but has self-published writing online or as a book, does that in any way interfere with the author’s eligibility for this prize?
A: This prize is for a writer’s first fiction publication that has gone through an editorial review process. If the self-published writing has generated significant sales or readership, please email [email protected] with the number of copies sold, years self-published, and other relevant information to confirm eligibility.
Q: We’re publishing a debut short story as an e-book or anthology. Do you accept galleys?
A: An author would be ineligible if they are being published in a book with a press. Stories published in anthologies are ineligible.
Q: Would a creative nonfiction story be eligible for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers?
A: No, the prize is for works of fiction only.
Q: Are the writers signing a contract with Autumn House Press for First North American Serial Rights? Does this contract include digital rights?
A: Writers would sign with Autumn House Press for nonexclusive, second serial rights for print and digital. All other rights will be retained by the author. It’ll be as author-friendly as it can get.
Q: I’ve received an award/grant/scholarship for my writing, but have never been published. Am I still eligible?
A: Yes, so long as this is your first piece of fiction writing published that has also undergone editorial review.
Q: What if my short story was first published in an anthology—does that count?
A: No, stories whose first publication is in an anthology are ineligible. Participating publications include literary magazines, journals, or cultural websites published on a recurring schedule.
Q: The story I want to submit was originally written in a language other than English, and has been translated into English. This is the story’s first publication in English, and the original writer’s first published piece of fiction. Is it eligible?
A: No. The debut short story must be originally published in English. Translations are not eligible.
Q: The story I want to submit is written by a writer who has published a few stories in a language other than English, but this is their first publication in English. Is this story eligible?
A: No, the debut story has to be the writer’s first short story or piece of fiction ever published in any language that has undergone an editorial review process.
Q: Previously, only U.S.-based publications were eligible. My journal is based in Australia. Are we eligible to submit our debut stories?
A: Yes, so long as the stories were originally published in English and meet all the eligibility requirements.