PEN America Literary Award PEN/Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers

The Orchid

The nurses exclaimed and laughed, saying they had never seen such a beautiful baby. And I felt she was not wholly mine, that I would not have the right… More

Makedonija

She sent the twins to milk two sheep, then put a copper of milk before me and one before my brother. Whoever drank his copper first would get to… More

Athalia Montez, Advice

In a major rediscovery, Burnett brings us the work of Urzidil, a writer from the Prague Circle whose fiction only blossomed later in life, as a writer-in-exile in the… More

Strawberries

With this translation, Beals introduces English-language readers to a sui generis early twentieth-century Swiss writer. Her sad and haunted voice is like no other—harsh and delicate; acrid and violet-scented.… More

You’ll Kiss Her Softly

You know it’s not cool for a man to talk about something that pussified. But you can’t help it. The four-letter word and you. She is older, actually. She’s… More

A Day in the Life of a Prisoner

Everyone smoked in the old days, and convicts made picture frames and jewelry boxes out of woven cigarette packaging. People made cardboard shelves and curtains for their cells. It… More