Announcing the Winner of the 2024 Dzanc Short Story Collection Prize
Dzanc Books is pleased to announce the winner of the 2024 Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Prize: Entomology of the Pin-Up Girl by Lauren Osborn. In addition to publication by Dzanc in Spring 2026, the prize also comes with a $2,500 advance.
“The title of Lauren Osborn’s collection leads you to the works inside Entomology of the Pin-Up Girl. Insects and girls and women drive every one of the stories in this exciting collection. Osborn utilizes each odd scenario to dig into the human condition,” said Dan Wickett, Dzanc’s co-founder and founder of the Emerging Writers Network. “This collection nicely continues Dzanc’s publishing of story collections full of surprises and scenarios one rarely finds in stories today.”
Lauren Osborn is a current Ph.D. candidate at Oklahoma State University studying English/Creating Writing and a graduate of the MFA program at Queen's University of Charlotte. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Redivider, The Adroit, The Cincinnati Review Micro Series, The North American Review, Carve, Adroit, DIAGRAM, Willow Springs, JMWW, Fourteen Hills, Lake Effect, The Laurel Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
“Winning the Dzanc Short Story Collection Prize feels like how I imagine a caterpillar must feel after it wakes up with wings,” Osborn said. “I’m so grateful, honored, and thrilled to be amongst the many incredible writers who have published with Dzanc. I hope these stories inspire empathy with all creatures—spiders, women, and insects alike.”
The Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Prize was created to recognize daring, original, and innovative writing. Dzanc Books is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization not only committed to producing quality literary works but providing creative writing instruction in public schools through the Dzanc Writers-in-Residence program and offering low-cost workshops for aspiring authors. Dzanc Books also runs annual prizes for the novel and nonfiction. For more information on the house, upcoming titles, and other prize winners, please visit www.dzancbooks.org.