Special Call for Submissions

Kweli Journal was selected by PEN America, along with other notable literary journals such as Tin House, The New Yorker and The Paris Review, to serve as a contributing publisher for the inaugural PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Kweli is proud to be in partnership with PEN; and, more still, proud to provide access to writers of color who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to be considered for the prize. 

Offered for the first time during PEN's 2017 Awards cycle, this award will recognize twelve emerging fiction writers for their debut short story published in a literary magazine or cultural website in 2016.

Each of the twelve winning writers will receive a $2,000 cash prize and will be honored at the annual PEN Literary Awards Ceremony in New York City. In a further effort to launch the winner's careers as fiction writers, the independent book publisher Catapult will also publish the twelve winning stories in an annual anthology entitled “The PEN America Best Debut Short Stories,” the first publication of which will be forthcoming in spring 2017.

Kweli has an open call for submissions from July 15, 2016 to August 15, 2016.

If you are an emerging writer of color who has yet to publish a short story, please submit your work to Kweli via our Submittable page for consideration for the inaugural PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize.

Submit your work to: http://kwelijournal.submittable.com/

In your cover letter, indicate that you are submitting work for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize. 

Submit one (1) short story no more than 7,000 words in one single file in doc., rtf, or .pdf format.

SEE the link below for more information on the inaugural PEN/RobertJ. Dau Short Story Prize. 

https://pen.org/blog/announcing-new-penrobert-j-dau-short-story-prize-emerging-writers