About Me

A 2025-27 Stegner Fellow at Stanford, I hold a Ph.D. from Florida State University and an M.F.A. from the University of New Orleans Creative Writing Workshop. My story collection Debris has won the Press 53 Short Fiction Award and is forthcoming May 3, 2026. My work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Georgia Review, The Greensboro Review, Mississippi Review, The Carolina Quarterly, BOOTH, Fugue, Fiction Southeast and has been awarded the Robert Watson Literary Prize in Fiction and  named a finalist for the Iowa Review Fiction Award, the Robert and Adele Schiff Award in prose, and others. I'm currently seeking representation for a novel about families, runaways, time, and the Gulf South.

"Sutter writes as if electrified by the final volts of the American Dream. The Apollo moon landing, Watergate, a perfect game thrown by a one-armed man; our moments of public fascination often serve as the backdrop for Debris’ unstable private citizenry. As feverishly hopeful as they are self-destructive, Sutter’s characters keep you turning the pages to see what else they may run into heart-first; a mother’s loving arms or a fist? With every sentence in this collection as taut as a wire, Sutter leaves no doubt: Debris is the launching pad of a great new voice in American fiction."

─M.O. Walsh, NYT Bestselling author of My Sunshine Away and The Big Door Prize

"Sutter’s haunting, darkly comic stories are set in the parts of Florida that tourists rarely see, places where his engaging, hapless characters struggle to get by. Debris is a true gem, crafted by a truly brilliant writer."

—Elizabeth Stuckey-French, author of The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady

"A gorgeous, and bruising, collection. With a voice that balances grit and grace, humor and heartbreak, Daniel S.C. Sutter captures great truths of the human condition ... love is imperfect, forgiveness is complicated, survival often looks like stubborn hope. Debris announces a writer unafraid to look closely at what remains after impact—as well as the messes we leave behind."

—Skip Horack, author of The Other Joseph, The Eden Hunter, and The Southern Cross

Books:

Debris: Stories (Forthcoming May, 2026), Winner of the 2025 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction, PURCHASE HERE

Story Publications:

The Georgia Review “Tucker and Nancy Are Starting a Rock ‘n’ Roll Band,” Spring 2026

The Greensboro Review "Mantis," Winner of the Robert Watson Literary Prize

The Mississippi Review "Like Always Blooming" 

The Carolina Quarterly "Lucia"

BOOTH "Hounds Run"

Fugue "Rag and Bone"

Fiction Southeast "Guilt and Matter"