This is The New Yorker Fiction Podcast from The New Yorker Magazine.

I'm Deborah Treesman, fiction editor at The New Yorker.

Each month, we invite a writer to choose a story from the magazine's archives to read and discuss.

This month, we're going to hear the first story that Raymond Carver published in The New Yorker back in 1981.

It's called Chef's House.

Suppose, just suppose, nothing had ever happened.

Suppose this was for the first time.

Just suppose. It doesn't hurt to suppose.

The story was chosen by David Means, whose fiction has been appearing in the magazine since 2004.

He's the author of four story collections, including The Secret Goldfish, and most recently The Spot.

He joins me today at The New Yorker office.

Hi, David.

Hello.

You know, given how much influence Carver has had on American short story writing,

I was quite surprised that you were the first person in more than three years to suggest reading him for this podcast.

Is he someone who's had a big effect on your work?

I think he has. I think he's had a big effect on every short story writer, whether they know it or not.

He's such a corrective.

He corrected and brought things back around into a certain direction at a particular time.

And if you were like me in college at that time, you read Carver, and it made you think a different way.

Linguistically and almost stylistically.

So you were kind of jumping off from that point, whether you wanted to or not.

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