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

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

On this episode of The Writer's Voice, we'll hear Suvankhampton Tamavongsa read her story,

Floating from the March 30th, 2026 issue of the magazine.

Tamavonxa has published four volumes of poetry,

as well as the story collection, How to Pronounce Knife,

and the novel Pick a Color, both of which were winners of the Giller Prize.

Now here's Subankan Tamarangsa. Floating.

I had not noticed him.

He came to stand in front of me

and asked if I was nervous,

doing that, talking in front of people. He said he'd seen

me looking at my notes, practicing. I do this all the time, I wanted to say, but I didn't. I said,

I was nervous, but once I'm talking, I'm fine. He asked me if I taught, like my friend

whom he knew from work. I spoke in a matter-of-fact way. I didn't laugh or giggle when he

wasn't funny. I told him about my family.

Mom and dad divorced.

My sister died.

Pills.

...