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“The writing process was a bit chaotic”: Robert J. Dau Prize Winner Amy Haejung
Learn about Amy Haejung’s short story “Maria,” which was selected for ‘Best Debut Short Stories 2021.’
Best Debut Short Stories 2021: The PEN America Dau Prize
Waxwing Literary Journal.
Where did you find the idea for this story? What was your writing process like?
There are two main through lines in “Maria:” the moon’s unexplained disappearance and the narrator’s struggle to come to terms with growing apart from her friend M. In writing, which of these ideas came to you first? How would you describe their interplay?
At one point in the narrative, the narrator dreams about M: “I picked up a pair of scissors and began to cut [her hair], shorter and shorter, sheets of black falling to the floor, and then when she spun around I saw my own face.” What does the narrator find in her friendship with M, and what is lost when the friendship ends?
At the end of “Maria” the narrator realizes that her emotional turmoil over falling out of touch with M arises from “the version of [M] that lived between my brain and my skull, grew into my mind.” What role does the narrator play in fueling her own longing? If the narrator and M were to reconnect in real life, would it help the narrator attain some sort of resolution? Why or why not?
How has the Robert J. Dau Prize affected you?
Waxwing
What’s the best or worst writing advice you’ve ever received and why?
Finally, where do you discover new writing?
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A Roundtable With the PEN America Best Debut Short Stories Judges: Sabrina Orah Mark, Emily Nemens, and Deesha Philyaw
Many of the stories felt written on the edge of an edge of an edge of a world.
On “getting creatively lost”: Robert J. Dau Prize Winner Mathapelo Mofokeng
Learn about Mathapelo Mofokeng’s short story “The Strong-Strong Winds,” which was selected for ‘Best Debut Short Stories 2021.’
“The most innocent thing you can do is want to create”: Robert J. Dau Prize Winner Isaac Hughes Green
Learn about Isaac Hughes Green’s short story “The First Time I Said It,” which was selected for ‘Best Debut Short Stories 2021.’