This is the writer's voice, new fiction from The New Yorker.

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

On this episode of The Writer's Voice, we'll hear Han Ong read his story, Havi,

from the June 10th and 17th, 2019 issue of the magazine.

Ong, the recipient of a MacArthur fellowship

in the Berlin Prize, is the author of more than a dozen

plays and two novels, Fixer Chow

and the Disinherited.

Now here's Han Ong.

Havi.

Hard to credit that the figure in front of him is a woman. The silhouette is huge

and partly obscured by the screen door. He, on the other hand, is in plain sun, right in the

middle of the gravel path, hesitant to go any closer, all of the New Mexico sky on top of him.

Finally, the figure opens its mouth, but he still can't tell what the voice conveys.

Yes?

I'm looking for the famous lady, he says.

No famous lady here.

I'm looking for the famous lady painter, he says. I'm a painter,

the figure replies. What's your business with me? You're the lady painter? If it's the painter

you're looking for, I'm the only one, the figure says, and then steps out, and there is no

diminishment in stature, no feminization.

The hair is short and a page boy cut, the gray like silver in the sun,

...