We’re excited to announce that the 2019 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers has been awarded to Doug Henderson for his short story “The Manga Artist,” first published in The Iowa Review Winter 2018/19 edition. The story was also the runner-up for the 2018 Iowa Review Awards in fiction, and judge Alexander Chee said, “‘The Manga Artist’ is a sublime melding of the comic form and the short story, at least three ways, and this cross-hatch of queer desire and cross-cultural conversation results in an ingenious and moving short story unlike any other I’ve read.” Henderson and Iowa Review staff accepted the award at the 55th annual PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony in New York City on February 26. Henderson is one of twelve authors selected for this prestigious honor by judges Danielle Evans, Alice Sola Kim, and Carmen Maria Machado, and, per the prize, this short story from volume 48, issue 3 of The Iowa Review will be published by Catapult in The PEN America Best Debut Short Stories this fall.
Thank you to PEN America for their support of authors like ours, and a HUGE congratulations to our author, Doug Henderson!
