ALUMNX NEWS: brandon brown (W ’23) Receives PEN America Short Story Award
VCFA MFA in Writing alumnx and current VCFA MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults Program Director brandon brown (W ’23) recently received a prestigious 2025 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize.
Awarded through PEN America—one of the largest organizations in the country dedicated to protecting freedom of expression—the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize “annually recognizes 12 emerging writers for an outstanding debut short story.” Along with the recognition, award winners receive $2,000 and will have their stories published in Catapult’s annual anthology Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize.
brown was recognized for their flash fiction piece “Faultline,” which was published with SplitLip Magazine in October of 2024.
‘“Faultline” is flash—just a little guy,” says brown of the piece. “It’s about some people—Avery and Sam—reconnecting after a long time apart, and wading through their complicated histories, and trying really hard to change, and bearing witness to someone else’s changing too. There’s some melancholy in there. Yearning, of course. And menace, too. I guess you could think of it as a kind of scary, body-shaking missed connection!
I was in a workshop with Tess Lloyd, someone I met through VCFA, and we were all bringing our prompts to the table. Hers was, in part: ‘Write a piece in which you use several sentences that open with the same subordinating conjunction/subordinate clause, or open several units of one whopper sentence with the repeated subordinating conjunction/subordinate clause.’ This made my head spin a little, to be honest, but I was compelled. So Tess offered me a vessel and I had to figure out how to fill it out. I landed on “If” pretty quickly. “If” is slippery, you know? And from there, I was in this thing’s jaws. I think I still am! (Shoutouts to Tess for the prompt, everyone who wrestled with early drafts of the story, and particularly [VCFA alumnx] Gina Thayer (W ’22) and Mystery Post (W ’23), who never fail to make me feel seen.)”
Of the PEN America award, brown noted that they were thrilled but also in disbelief. “I like the story a ton—I loved writing it, and love that people seem to be responding to it,” said brown. “More than anything, this has been a good reminder that I ought to keep at it, that the work isn’t just a little fascination of mine but something that can reach other people. I hesitated around the publication game for a long time. I didn’t think I had the chops, I didn’t think I was writing the kind of work that could reach people. I’m trying to let this relieve me of that obstruction.”
PEN America will confer all upcoming awards, grants, and recognitions at their upcoming ceremony in New York City May 8, 2025. “Faultline” and the 11 other award winning short stories will be published with Catapult in late 2025.
For now, brown has one parting encouragement for their peers: “Wrestle yourself into beautiful and unrecognizable and new shapes—please. But be easy with yourself, too. It’s slow, hard work. Day by day work.”
Keep up-to-date with brown’s writing and creative thoughts at brittlealmanac.com.