Best Debut Short Stories 2025: The Pen America Dau Prize

The essential annual guide to the newest voices in literature

Best Debut Short Stories celebrates the most promising short story writers today. Selected by a panel of distinguished judges, these eight stories are the 2025 winners of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, which recognizes outstanding debuts published in literary magazines.

Each story is accompanied by an introduction from the journal editor who first published it, providing insight about what’s exciting in fiction right now, and recognizing the vital work literary magazines do in nurturing new voices.