Lara Hughes (MFA ‘22) Wins 2025 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers
Creative Writing MFA Alum Lara Hughes (’22) was recently awarded the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Twelve debut writers were chosen for originality, craft, and pushing the boundaries of the genre. Their exceptional short stories will be published by Catapult in the annual anthology Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize. Lara Hughes’ winning story is titled “The Faraday Cage.”
The prize 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. This year’s judges — Lydi Conklin, Dionne Irving, Brenda Peynado — selected the stories from a range of dynamic literary publications.
Lara Hughes is a fiction writer who was born in Germany and raised on various military bases. She holds an MFA from Vanderbilt, where she received an Edgar H. Duncan Fellowship Award, taught undergraduate creative writing, and served as Nonfiction Editor for the Nashville Review. Lara is the winner of the 2022 Emerging Writer’s Prize from The Arkansas International and has received support from the New York State Summer Writers Institute. She currently lives in Nashville, where she is at work on a novel and short story collection.
The official announcement can be found here.