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

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

On this episode of The Writer's Voice, we'll hear Suvankham Temevongsa,

read her story Goodlooking from the March 1st 2021 issue of the magazine.

Temevongsa has published four volumes of poetry

and the story collection How to Pronounce Knife,

which won the 2020 Scotiabank Killer Prize.

Now here's Suvankham Temevongsa.

Good looking.

Dad thought himself a good looking man.

He was fit if you like that sort of thing.

He was 38 years old and worked at the gym four days a week for eight hours.

He was an instructor for a few exercise classes and filled in when others couldn't make their shifts.

He didn't wear a wedding ring.

He said this was good for business.

His boss agreed and encouraged the other male instructors not to wear a ring if they had one.

A wife that is.

Dad was encouraged to flirt with women at the gym, harmless flirting,

talking and smiling and being friendly, being nice.

Leave the rest up to the imagination, mislead, and then apologize.

Exercise good health, these things don't sell gym memberships, dad said.

If there were female instructors, dad never mentioned them.

...