Bard College Student Samantha Barrett ’26 Wins 2025 PEN/Robert J Dau Short Story Prize
Samantha Barrett ’26.
Bard written arts major Samantha Barrett ’26 has won the 2025 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. This award recognizes 12 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. Chosen for originality, craft, and pushing the boundaries of the genre, each winner receives a $2,000 cash prize and is published by Catapult in their annual anthology, Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize. This year’s judges—Lydi Conklin, Dionne Irving, Brenda Peynado—selected the winning stories from a range of dynamic literary publications.
Barrett’s prize-winning story “Invert” was published by Foglifter Journal, issue 9.1 (2024) and nominated by the journal’s editors for the PEN award. Barrett will attend the 61st annual PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on May 8 in New York City, where over 20 distinct awards, fellowships, grants, prizes, and nearly $350,000 will be conferred to writers and translators.
“I'm deeply honored to receive this award, and incredibly excited to attend this ceremony along with some of the most promising up-and-coming writers of today,” said Barrett.
The PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers 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. 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.
Post Date: 05-06-2025
Barrett’s prize-winning story “Invert” was published by Foglifter Journal, issue 9.1 (2024) and nominated by the journal’s editors for the PEN award. Barrett will attend the 61st annual PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on May 8 in New York City, where over 20 distinct awards, fellowships, grants, prizes, and nearly $350,000 will be conferred to writers and translators.
“I'm deeply honored to receive this award, and incredibly excited to attend this ceremony along with some of the most promising up-and-coming writers of today,” said Barrett.
The PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers 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. 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.
Post Date: 05-06-2025