June 10, 2025, 9:02am

David Means, the author of six story collections (including Assorted Fire Events and Two Nurses, Smoking), has won this year’s PEN/Bernard and Ann Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story.

Since 1998, the award has been given in honor of the late Malamud, the writer behind The Natural and The Fixer. Malamud was a master story writer, and a champion of the form all his life.

“I’m deeply honored to receive the PEN/Malamud Award—to be associated with Bernard Malamud and to stand alongside so many practitioners of the short story form,” said Means, in an acceptance statement.

“The short story feels intrinsic to the human condition, as natural as drinking water or sharing love. It’s a singular tool for probing the human experience, illuminating the universals of who we are. The form also feels especially suited to exploring the nature of life in the United States: a country vast and varied, best captured in the precise, revealing glimpses stories can offer. I’m profoundly grateful to the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and the PEN/Malamud Award committee for their support of the short story in these trying times.”

Previous PEN/Malamud winners include Ted Chiang, Edwidge Danticat, Yiyun Li, Charles Baxter, Lydia Davis, John Edgar Wideman, Amina Gautier, Joan Silber, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Joy Williams.

Means will be recognized at the annual PEN/Malamud Award Ceremony, held in December in partnership with American University.