What do you think?
Rate this book
Pen America Best Debut Short Stories #3
PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2019
The essential annual guide to the newest voices in short fiction
Every year, PEN America Best Debut Short Stories celebrates twelve outstanding stories by today’s most promising new fiction writers and the literary magazines that discovered them. Selections for the third volume of the anthology will be made by three judges, Danielle Evans, Alice Sola Kim, and Carmen Maria Machado. Each story comes with commentary by the editors who first published it, explaining what made them pick it out of the submission pile and why they were moved to share it with readers.
Every year, PEN America Best Debut Short Stories celebrates twelve outstanding stories by today’s most promising new fiction writers and the literary magazines that discovered them. Selections for the third volume of the anthology will be made by three judges, Danielle Evans, Alice Sola Kim, and Carmen Maria Machado. Each story comes with commentary by the editors who first published it, explaining what made them pick it out of the submission pile and why they were moved to share it with readers.
240 pages, Paperback
First published August 20, 2019
73 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 16, 2019
Great stories here-- especially loved Today, You're a Black Revolutionary, and Without a Big One. Won't forget either. Really glad PEN is sponsoring this kind of anthology for emerging writers. I still miss Best New American Voices, which fell victim to one of countless publishing mergers years ago. Please bring it back so that new writers and adventurous readers can find each other.
August 21, 2019
The future of the short story is so very bright. I was completely blown away by this collection of new, vibrant voices.
September 3, 2019
*Provided copy by publisher*
As a young writer who predominantly writes about disabled young women, it is difficult, sometimes, to feel at home in the world of literary fiction.
It is collections like this, however, that make me feel like perhaps there is a place for me after all. The stories featured here are brash, bold, and unapologetic.
The diversity of the writing alone is extraordinary. I adore reading and writing second-person POV stories, and it was wonderful to see so many of them highlighted in this collection.
From a writer's standpoint, it is also a great resource for those who are just starting to submit their stories – the literary magazines that originally published these pieces are open to debut writers who experiment and push boundaries of content and form.
If these stories represent where short literary fiction is going in the future – and I sincerely hope that to be the case – we are in for some fantastic writing.
As a young writer who predominantly writes about disabled young women, it is difficult, sometimes, to feel at home in the world of literary fiction.
It is collections like this, however, that make me feel like perhaps there is a place for me after all. The stories featured here are brash, bold, and unapologetic.
The diversity of the writing alone is extraordinary. I adore reading and writing second-person POV stories, and it was wonderful to see so many of them highlighted in this collection.
From a writer's standpoint, it is also a great resource for those who are just starting to submit their stories – the literary magazines that originally published these pieces are open to debut writers who experiment and push boundaries of content and form.
If these stories represent where short literary fiction is going in the future – and I sincerely hope that to be the case – we are in for some fantastic writing.
February 23, 2020
Especially liked “The Manga Artist”
April 5, 2020
Good dip into new writers writing short fiction. My favorites were the first five, the seventh, and the story called "Vain Beasts," a twisted fairy tale. PEN America Best Debut Short Stories is a series I will come back to year after year.
April 16, 2020
Beautiful stories.
Because they're "debut" stories, I was leery, afraid they'd be like obvious, vulgar, self-important, unedited Instagram writing of so many millennials...but these are the opposite. Thoughtful, observant, interesting, moving. My world expanded as I read each story.
Because they're "debut" stories, I was leery, afraid they'd be like obvious, vulgar, self-important, unedited Instagram writing of so many millennials...but these are the opposite. Thoughtful, observant, interesting, moving. My world expanded as I read each story.
December 3, 2019
Short stories by emerging writers are an unexplored region of the literary landscape for me, so when @catapult asked if I’d like to take a look at this anthology of 12 prize-winning short stories [as judged by @carmenmmachado @daniedve & @alicesolakim], I didn’t hesitate. Debut works hold the thrill of uncharted territory, and couldn’t we all use more adventure in our workaday (/reading) lives?
▫️
These stories reached out & gripped me; pulled me into moments with such speed & alacrity that I was left happily tripping over my own toes. I want to rip this collection up because there are at least a dozen people whose hands I’m dying to place one or more stories in. But I’m not sure I could bring myself to deconstruct such a finely wrought product.
▫️
Highlights for me included:
•Sarah Curry’s THE RICKIES, about the unhealed parts we don’t deem fit for public consumption: “[...w]e will our arms to become part of the weapon and hurl pieces of metal through a paper target shaped like the outline of a man’s hyperbolic death throw.”
•Doug Henderson’s THE MANGA ARTIST, a queer story which sideswiped me with its innovative form (narration of comic panels) & unexpected heart.
•Laura Freudig’s MOTHER AND CHILD, which I want to send to every new mother I know: “[...h]e yelled at me for not reacting quickly enough. Like I don’t save that baby from death twenty times a day when he’s not around.” [If you loved #MiracleCreek HOP TO THIS]
•Erin Singer’s BAD NORTHERN WOMEN, about four sisters born to an unforgiving life in Saskatchewan: “We are four strays strung together by seat belts, fingers against a windowpane as bush and bears and burning cigarettes whiz by.”
▫️
Editor Yuka Igarashi calls this collection, now in its 3rd year, “a yearly argument for risk and novelty.” In a bookish life where I’m always trying to maximize my time & reading experience this was a ‘risk’ that came with great reward. These stories were a breath of fresh air, a palate cleanser; a reading experience unlike any I’ve had all year.
▫️
These stories reached out & gripped me; pulled me into moments with such speed & alacrity that I was left happily tripping over my own toes. I want to rip this collection up because there are at least a dozen people whose hands I’m dying to place one or more stories in. But I’m not sure I could bring myself to deconstruct such a finely wrought product.
▫️
Highlights for me included:
•Sarah Curry’s THE RICKIES, about the unhealed parts we don’t deem fit for public consumption: “[...w]e will our arms to become part of the weapon and hurl pieces of metal through a paper target shaped like the outline of a man’s hyperbolic death throw.”
•Doug Henderson’s THE MANGA ARTIST, a queer story which sideswiped me with its innovative form (narration of comic panels) & unexpected heart.
•Laura Freudig’s MOTHER AND CHILD, which I want to send to every new mother I know: “[...h]e yelled at me for not reacting quickly enough. Like I don’t save that baby from death twenty times a day when he’s not around.” [If you loved #MiracleCreek HOP TO THIS]
•Erin Singer’s BAD NORTHERN WOMEN, about four sisters born to an unforgiving life in Saskatchewan: “We are four strays strung together by seat belts, fingers against a windowpane as bush and bears and burning cigarettes whiz by.”
▫️
Editor Yuka Igarashi calls this collection, now in its 3rd year, “a yearly argument for risk and novelty.” In a bookish life where I’m always trying to maximize my time & reading experience this was a ‘risk’ that came with great reward. These stories were a breath of fresh air, a palate cleanser; a reading experience unlike any I’ve had all year.
January 19, 2025
Highlights include "Without a Big One" by JP Infante and "Mother and Child" by Laura Freudig, which channeled strong emotions in complex short stories.
Lowlight was "The Manga Artist" by Doug Henderson, not least of which were the editor's unusual comments about the refreshing-ness of the material and how it is treated, regarding a story about, *checks notes* a white American who goes to Japan to teach English and fuck one of his students.
Never mind the unironically infantilization of the Japanese students:
"He is blond with blue eyes, young and fresh-faced, a more idealized version of myself... He is exotic to his students. They never knew blonds could be hairy. He is teaching more than language."
The editor who nominated the story admired the story for its lack of fetishization of Japanese culture. One shudders at what the editor would consider fetish-y.
Lowlight was "The Manga Artist" by Doug Henderson, not least of which were the editor's unusual comments about the refreshing-ness of the material and how it is treated, regarding a story about, *checks notes* a white American who goes to Japan to teach English and fuck one of his students.
Never mind the unironically infantilization of the Japanese students:
"He is blond with blue eyes, young and fresh-faced, a more idealized version of myself... He is exotic to his students. They never knew blonds could be hairy. He is teaching more than language."
The editor who nominated the story admired the story for its lack of fetishization of Japanese culture. One shudders at what the editor would consider fetish-y.
October 3, 2020
A pretty good anthology! Loved Igarashi's introduction, the selection and variety of stories, and though "The Manga Artist" is the only one that'll make Best Prose list for this year in my books, the rest and thoroughly enjoyable and warming. Some duds, some great paragraphs, all of them kinda reminding me that short stories don't need especially driven plotlines, they can just be about peoples' lives and times. 8/10
Connection: Carman Maria Machado was an instructor at the Iowa Young Writers' Workshop when I was in attendance.
Connection: Carman Maria Machado was an instructor at the Iowa Young Writers' Workshop when I was in attendance.
October 27, 2019
The best story in this collection by far is the lead story by Jade Jones. A powerful story about a woman who takes decisive action against a community’s confederate flag, but for personal reasons as well as political. Other stories show a good heart behind this collection, that of trying to open a wider view of writers and short stories, but in this collection none is more compelling than Jones.
November 27, 2019
I’m starting to really get into short stories, and I decided I wanted to keep my finger on the pulse, as it were. There were some incredible and breathtaking stories in here, and some that I just kind of liked. Overall a solid collection and exciting to see the things current writers are doing with the short story form.
April 24, 2020
These stories (powerful in their own right) become almost surreal/magical when considering the fact that each piece was that writer's first publication. It's energizing to read such strong talent. Personal Standouts: "Today You're A Black Revolutionary" by Jade Jones, "The Manga Artist" by Doug Henderson, "Cicadas and the Dead Chairman" by Pingmei Lan, "The Rickies" by Sarah Curry.
December 24, 2019
I read several of the stories in this collection, but not all. Sometimes I find it too easy to drop a short story collection and then hard to get back in. But this has lots of good stories, good writing.
January 16, 2020
Being interested in writing short fiction, I need to read more short fiction. I also found that I really enjoy completing my read in one sitting. I didn't care for all the stories but am amazed at the story lines and what developed them.
March 11, 2020
Pros: anthology of diverse short stories, enjoyed more than the previous edition, many stories had characters I wanted to keep reading about
Cons: a few stories I didn’t quite grasp
Overall: I liked this collection more than the 2018 one. Looking forward to the 2020 one!
Cons: a few stories I didn’t quite grasp
Overall: I liked this collection more than the 2018 one. Looking forward to the 2020 one!
May 5, 2021
Wonderful short story collection! Some more gripping than others but really loved seeing all these very talented debuts.
May 26, 2020
Each new year that these stories come out I find the selections to be vastly different from previous editions. The 2019 anthology has a number of standout works including The Rickies, The Manga Artist and Mother and Child. I can't wait to read the 2020 book.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews