(NEW YORK)— Twelve debut writers chosen for originality, craft, and pushing literary boundaries were announced today as 2026 winners of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Their exceptional stories will be published by Catapult in the annual anthology Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize.
Celebrating its 10th year, the prize has introduced emerging talent over its short history, with many prior winners publishing short story collections and/or novels that enjoyed wide readership, including Crystal Hana Kim (2017), Celeste Mohammed (2018), Doug Henderson (2019), and Willa C. Richards (2020). The titular story from 2017 Dau winner Ben Shattuck’s story collection The History of Sound was adapted last year 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.
Generously supported by the family foundation of the late Robert Jensen Dau, the PEN/Dau prize recognizes outstanding debut stories published in a literary magazine, journal, or cultural website. In addition to being collected in Catapult’s annual anthology, the winning authors receive a $2,000 cash prize.
Winners Probe the Human Experience in All of its Fullness
The winning stories deftly navigate the human experience. Though some are set in dystopian futures or distant lands, the stories collectively probe familiar as well as not-so-familiar literary terrain from grief, immigration and colonialism to capitalism, technology and nepotism, among other motifs. (Note: Below are the winning authors names, with a description of each story and a link to the journal where it appeared).
This year’s judges —authors Juliet Escoria, Abby Geni, and Chris Stuck — selected the stories from a range of dynamic literary publications: The Missouri Review, the Los Angeles Review, The Good Life Review, The Common, Split Lip Magazine and Salamander, among them.
Stuck is a fiction writer, whose debut short story collection, Give My Love to the Savages (Amistad Press), was a finalist for the 2022 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize.
Geni is theauthor of the short story collections The Last Animal and The Body Farm, as well as the novels The Wildlands, The Lightkeepers, and Children of the Wolf—which is set to be released in September of 2026.
Escoria is the author of five books, including the 2024 short story collection You Are the Snake (Soft Skull Press).
Founder’s Support Inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s Writings
For much of his life, Robert J. Dau manufactured wood blocks for a living from a factory in northern Michigan. Growing up in Petoskey, he was always inclined towards the arts: sculpture, gardening, and literature. His proximity to Walloon Lake, where Ernest Hemingway had spent summers as a young man, called out to Dau’s love of books and writing. And thus began his new dream: to promote the next generation of fiction writers.
PEN America Literary Award Ceremony March 31 in NYC
Since 1963, the PEN America Literary Awards have honored outstanding voices in translation, fiction, poetry, science writing, essay, sports writing, biography, children’s literature, and drama. With the help of our partners, PEN America confers more than 20 distinct awards, fellowships, grants and prizes each year, awarding nearly $350,000 to writers and translators annually.
This year, the Literary Awards ceremony will be held on March 31 at The Town Hall in New York City. Fifty finalists were recently named for the awards showcasing excellence from literary superstars and new voices alike and spanning genres including fiction, poetry, drama, essays, biography, translation, nonfiction, and more.
The winning 2026 stories and authors are:
“Smith” (The Common) by Cory Beizer
Struggling with a past unhealthy relationship and its lasting effects on his self-image, Smith is gifted a dog with the same name and reluctantly begins taking care of her, all while attempting to take care of himself.
“Tbilisi” (The Good Life Review) by Sara Maria Hasbun
A seemingly simple story about a woman, her travels, and her relationships peels back to reveal an underpinning of political unrest, evolving into an exploration of how people respond to and interact with tumultuous times.
“The Farm” (ZYZZYVA) by Pepe Hernandez
When a horse goes missing from the Villalopez twins’ already-desolate farm, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (Revolutionary Armed Forces) come knocking to investigate.
“Summerland” (Salamander) by Taylor Melia Elyse Mahone
Ever since her brother, Christopher, returned from the hospital, Meadow has had a dark fascination with the alligator attack that removed his hand—oddly, so has Christopher.
“Don’t Worry” (North American Review) by Shelby McDonald
Structured around a family’s weekend trip to Arizona, this story’s main character faces the harsh reality of seeing her mother for who she is and finding out just how similar the two of them are.
“Girl Name That Starts with B” (The Adroit Journal) by Asyl Ospan
Set against an immigrant’s experience at an American college, this story confronts relationships tinged by biases and reiterates the power of language and owning one’s identity.
“New Skin for the Old Ceremony” (The Missouri Review) by Arabella Saunders
Inspired by the wealth and success of his businessman father, the narrator moves to Zambia, aiming to sell milk. What follows is an examination of capitalism, colonialism, generational wealth, and the type of man these forces form.
“Swimmers” (Aster(ix) Journal) by Sabrina Shie
A coming-of-age story that meditates on a young woman’s changing notions of friendships, her immigrant family, and her fast-approaching future.
“Rescued Late” (Raleigh Review) by M.J. Steinbach
A traumatic event on a neighboring farm disrupts this narrator’s life of family woes and humdrum rural living, leading her to find solace in an unlikely animal companion.
“Ymelda’s Infinite Eels” (Split Lip Magazine) by A.A. Tojino
In this mystical tale, continuing her mother’s eel-cooking business is not just a job for Ymelda, it’s a duty—unfortunately, if she strays from this duty, she tempts a terrible fate for her customers.
“Meteora” (The Los Angeles Review) by Alex Treuber
While Meteora is in the grips of drug withdrawal on a road trip to Seattle, her boyfriend reflects on their volatile relationship, detailing both the love and the struggles that have shaped it.
“A Dog’s Life” (Chicago Quarterly Review) by Yanan Wang
This dystopian tale details a family who delays the traditional grieving process by opting to try a developing technology that implants the consciousness of their loved one into an animal of their choice: a dog.
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.
Contact: Suzanne Trimel, [email protected], 201-247-5057