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 Waiki Wang,

read her story status and flux from the June 26, 2023 issue of the magazine.

Wang is the author of Two Novels, Chemistry, which won the Penn Hemingway Award in 2018,

and Joan is OK, which was published in 2022.

Now here's Waiki Wang.

Status and flux.

For two years, no one traveled.

Countries closed their borders to other countries that had closed their borders first.

When borders reopened, everyone began traveling again in full force.

They would always be another variant best to see the world while you could.

Around this time, I developed insomnia and began driving by myself at night.

The first night I drove to a 24-hour supermarket,

I stood in front of the frozen food section,

occasionally opening a freezer door to grab something and changing my mind.

It was not that in year three I couldn't travel,

but to do so was ill-advised.

My husband was an American citizen,

and we lived in New Jersey.

Renewing my work visa yet again seemed like a complete waste of everyone's time.

So we'd hired a lawyer for my green card process,

...