Best Debut Short Stories 2020: The PEN America Dau Prize

Pen America Best Debut Short Stories #4

by Yuka Igarashi (Editor)

The essential annual guide to the newest voices in short fiction, selected this year by Tracy O’Neill, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, and Deb Olin Unferth

Who are the most promising short story writers working today? Where do we look to discover the future stars of literary fiction? This book will offer a dozen compelling answers to these questions.

The stories collected here represent the most recent winners of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, which recognizes twelve writers who have made outstanding debuts in literary magazines in the previous year. They are chosen by a panel of distinguished judges, themselves innovators of the short story form: Tracy O’Neill, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, and Deb Olin Unferth. Each piece comes with an introduction by its original editors, whose commentaries provide valuable insight into what magazines are looking for in their submissions, and showcase the vital work they do to nurture literature’s newest voices.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies

240 pages, Paperback

Published August 25, 2020

Reviews

[Catapult · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Debut Short Stories 2020 is the essential annual guide to the newest voices in short fiction. The stories selected represent the most recent winners of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, selected this year by Tracy O’Neill, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, and Deb Olin Unferth. Each piece comes with an intro by its original editors, whose commentaries provide valuable insight into what magazines are looking for in their submissions, and showcase the vital work they do to nurture literature’s newest voices.

[Kenny Chaffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

All Excellent Stories with one exception which I won't name cause it's probably a personal preference and wonderful to someone else. :)

[Upasana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The PEN America Literary Awards annually honor outstanding emerging short story writers with the "Dau Prize for Best Debut Short stories". I have been reading individual stories from past winners and was pleasantly surprised by how good the quality of writing is (given these are first time writers who are, mostly, not even writing full time). I loved reading them so much that I preordered the 2020 collection and started reading the stories as soon as it hit my Kindle.

While I liked most of the stories, the haunting quality of the prose in "The other child" and the emotionally wrenching "Cats vs Cancer" and "Failure to Thrive" have stayed with me the most. The palpable grief in "Evangelina Concepcion" shook me, and the ending of "Madam's Sister" made me catch my breath in the way only a familiarity with certain feelings do. Overall, glad to have read the collection, and will probably keep reading these collections to discover new voices.

[Erika Schoeps · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exciting new voices in literature.

The committee selected authors with diverse cultural backgrounds, which means there are exciting settings for some stories (South Korea, Lusaka in Zambia).

My personal highlight of the collection was "Failure to Thrive," which does not improve the life situation of the characters, but still manages to be simultaneously a shock to the emotions and realistic. The concluding scene is fantastic -- gross but familiar, shaming and liberating.

There are some stories where I struggled to follow the technical aspects of what was happening -- and in a brief short story collection, I wasn't interested in rereading again to figure it out. Definitely a minor qualm though.

[S. Fambul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unified and harmonious collection. Unlike many short story anthologies I have tried to read, nearly all stories in this collection felt in sync. Story endings that did not slam shut, but rather left room to breathe for the reader. Characters were more gray than anything else, more true to life and messy in their contradictions. Looking forward to the next Dau collection!

[Nanako Water · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this collection of short stories. It's hard to believe these are all debut stories written by new writers. The introduction to each story, usually written by the editor of the magazine who published the story, were particularly illuminating. These introductions gave me insight into the writer and how they developed their work to bring it up to such excellent quality. All of the stories were wonderful, inviting me into worlds as varied as - young men "rescuing" their mother, grief, cancer and cats, Zambia, young archeologist parents, and orphaned half-brothers. Beautifully drawn characters in vivid situations. I especially enjoyed Evangelina Conception by Ani Cooney, Cats VS Cancer by Valerie Hegarty, Failure to Thrive by Willa C. Richards, Bat Outta Hell by Damitri Martinez, Madam's Sister by Mbozi Haimbe, The Other Child by David Kelly Lawrence, The Water Tower and the Turtle by Kikuko Tsumura, and the Good Good Men by Shannon Sanders. Actually that's almost all of the stories so I might as well say, they were all great. I'm going to find the previous years' Best Debut Stories next.

[penny · Rating 1 out of 5]

so 12 short stories total,

i liked that there was more variety and roughness to these; less issues with content and more with mechanical things like pacing, way too much summary over scene, flatly expository dialogue, telling, filtering (e.g., she noticed, he remembered), etc

i also liked reading the editor intros to each story, interesting to see what stood-out to xyz editor

that said, none of these struck me as creatively sharp, memorable, or strong case for short (!) story format

curious to see if 2021 - 2024 collections are better

[Ankush Agarwal · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it's a superb collection of debut stories with excellent writing skills focusing on relationship and emotional nuances, there is little in terms of the "story". Even in a short story, I expect a plot and something to happen. However, that is missing from most of the stories. It's a beautiful read if you want to read about the depth and complexities of human feelings and emotions but not for entertainment or for a good story.

[Lauryn]

No rating because I started reading this in January, put it down, picked it up in June, put it down, and finally finished it now. Which is to say I remember almost none of the early stories and didn’t find anything particularly compelling about the last ones but didn’t want to have this sitting around for another year.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent anthology from Pen/America and Catapult. This year’s judges, Tracy O’Neill, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, and Deb Olin Unferth, have selected some brilliant debut stories. This is my favorite annual anthology, always bringing out surprising and finely crafted fiction.

[Rose Webb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Personal favorite: The Other Child by David Kelly Lawrence

[Jill M · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorites: 1. The Other Child, 2. Don’t Go to Strangers

[Leandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorites: The Other Child, Failure to Thrive, Bat Outta Hell, Don’t Go to Strangers, The Good Good Men. Cats v Cancer, too

[Caelan Fortes · Rating 3 out of 5]

high 3

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting choice of stories. Some are quite dark and or surrealistic.