Twelve debut writers chosen for originality, craft, and pushing the boundaries of the genre were announced today as winners of the $2000 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Their exceptional short stories will be published by Catapult in the annual anthology Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize.
Now in its ninth year, the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers annually recognizes 12 emerging writers for an outstanding debut short story. Previous winners who have gone on to enjoy wide readership and book publication include Crystal Hana Kim (2017), Celeste Mohammed (2018), Doug Henderson (2019), and Willa C. Richards (2020). 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.
This year’s judges — Lydi Conklin, Dionne Irving, Brenda Peynado — selected the stories from a range of dynamic literary publications. The winning stories are:
- “Burrowing Creatures” (AGNI) by Steven Archer
- ”Invert” (Foglifter Journal) by Samantha Barrett
- ”Faultline” (Split Lip Magazine) by Brandon Brown
- ”Corn Soup” (Peatsmoke Journal) by Sammi Chiyao
- ”Elastic” (Midwest Review) by Joanna R. Demkiewicz
- ”Lovesick” (North American Review) by Jason Fernandes
- ”The Faraday Cage” (The Arkansas International) by Lara Hughes
- ”A Resting Place” (McSweeney’s Quarterly) by Celine Ipek
- ”Mouth and Heart” (StoryQuarterly) by Jessie Li
- ”The Diaspora Café” (Michigan Quarterly Review) by Vince Omni
- ”Little Women” (The Common) by Megan Tennant
- ”Ride Me Up to Heaven” (Story Quarterly) by Zhenglong Yang
Since 1963, the PEN Literary Awards have honored outstanding writers across fiction, poetry, science writing, essays, biography, children’s literature, and drama. With the help of our partners, PEN America confers over 20 distinct awards, fellowships, grants, and prizes each year, and will confer nearly $350,000 to writers and translators at this year’s ceremony on May 8 in New York City.
Before his death, Robert J. Dau, a lifelong Michigan resident, requested that a prize be established to promote budding writers. He knew that Ernest Hemingway spent summers with his family in northern Michigan and was a contemporary of Dau’s mother. Hemingway spent a winter writing in Dau’s hometown of Petoskey, and Robert loved Hemingway’s connection to his hometown. He also loved that Hemingway wrote his Nick Adams stories about places he knew personally. Dau’s admiration for Hemingway resulted in the creation of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.
