The people behind the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story nominations.
Read more about real stories and inspirations. Here’s who we nominated, and congratulations to all nominees — good luck!
Rebecca Threewit, United States, Mother of the Nation
Rebecca Threewit is a writer of literary and speculative fiction based in California. Her work often explores themes of gender, autonomy, and psychology, with a focus on the quiet violences embedded in everyday life. Mother of the Nation is her reflection on what it means to protect something sacred in a country that keeps shifting beneath your feet.
"Creating art asks me to look closely at myself and the world, which deepens my empathy and sense of responsibility to others. I think making art is one of the best things we can do to nurture ourselves in a sometimes scary world."
Read her piece in America’s Slide Towards Authoritarianism today.
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Celine W, United Kingdom, Diving in the Canal
Based in the UK, Celine Wynn is an MA student in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. Born and raised in southern China, her writing is marked by the use of distinctive metaphors and a tone that is both heavy and satirical, through which she rewrites her personal experiences and memories of growing up into stories. She believes that writing should possess the power “to change the present for those who live it, and to let those to come remember today.”
"There is an old Chinese proverb that goes, "The world is a vast and fathomless dyeing vat.” The reason I write is to confront our complexity, safeguard the innate whiteness within our souls, and cast stones into this abyss ceaselessly, until an echo responds."
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Jess A, United States, Feathers
Jess is a native South Texan from a Mexican and Arab family. She interweaves autobiography into themes of social and collective memory to explore generational trauma and believes in the power of narrative storytelling to form reconciliation and restoration.
“When it comes to social justice and creative expression, narrative becomes the most powerful tool in the pursuit of justice; it begs you to listen, it begs you to let me crawl under your skin and put you in front of a mirror, it demands attention. For me, taking mundane and even humiliating moments of injustice and reframing them, rewriting them into something holy, something that demands an ear, a mirror, an itch on your left arm, is the highest calling of my creative expression.”
Read her work in America’s Slide Towards Authoritarianism today.
Safiya Lunat, United States, Our Reflections
Safiya Lunat is a rising senior at Packer Collegiate Institute. She is a Content Editor for her school newspaper, co-leader of the Amnesty International club, and a member of her school’s Student Faculty Justice Committee, South Asian Student Association, and Investment club.
“For me, writing is a tool for empathy and awareness, and I am passionate about weaving my personal experiences with the broader social issues that shape them. In doing so, I hope to create work that both reflects my own journey and resonates with others who recognize pieces of themselves in it.”
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