Deadline: November 25, 2025
Applications are open for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers 2026. The PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers recognizes twelve emerging writers each year 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 prize is generously supported by 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.
Prize
- The winning writers each receive a $2,000 cash prize and will be published by Catapult in their annual anthology, Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize.
Eligibility
- Stories must be submitted by editors of literary magazines, journals, or cultural websites and published in the English language. Publications may be based and/or distributed anywhere in the world, so long as the story submitted was originally written in and published in English. Authors may not submit their own work.
- Participating publications include literary magazines, journals, or cultural websites published on a recurring schedule.
- Stories must have been published or forthcoming in the applicable calendar year.
- 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 are ineligible.
- Editors from eligible publications may submit up to four eligible stories from debut authors in a given award year. Stories may not exceed 12,000 words in length.
- Submitted story files should not include the journal name or other identifying information, including the name of the author.
- Both the editor and debut author must agree to and sign the award’s declaration of eligibility at the bottom of the form.
Application
Submissions will be accepted through November 25, 2025. No late submission will be accepted.
For more information, visit PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize.
