This is the writer's voice, new fiction from The New Yorker. I'm Deborah Trisman,

fiction editor at The New Yorker. On this episode of The Writer's Voice, we'll hear Sona Krasikov

read her story Ways and Means from the August 27th, 2018 issue of the magazine.

Krasikov is the author of the story collection one more year, for which she won the National Book Foundation's Five Under 35 Award,

and the novel The Patriots, which was published in 2017. Now here's Sana Krasikov.

Ways and Means

The first time Hal read Oliver's apology

was when it came down through the company's server

to the inboxes of every employee at the public radio station

where they both worked.

She, for a decade, and Ali, for three. His words were the usual ones,

conveying sorrow at the thought of treading on anyone's sense of dignity or self-assurance,

the remorse toward his staff and others he may have injured through an excess of blindness.

It torments me to know I've caused pain to people who held me in esteem.

In recent days I've come to recognize

that my position in itself created a power dynamic

that led many around me to feel silenced,

invalidated, or reduced in spirit.

The apology struck Hal as both defensive and pandering, suffering as all acts of public contrition

do from a confusion over the intended audience. Also, it sounded nothing like the Oliver riff she'd known,

the Oliver who'd never use an idiotic word like, invalidated.

First, as a slightly too resonant voice she had tracked and mixed in the studio,

...