Susan Choi Reads Jennifer Egan

Adam Levin joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Backbone,” by David Foster Wallace, which was published in The New Yorker in 2011. Levin, a winner of the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award, is the author of the story collection “Hot Pink” and the novels “The Instructions,” “Bubblegum,” and “Mount Chicago.”

Karen Russell joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Stone,” by Louise Erdrich, which was published in The New Yorker in 2019. Russell is the author of six books of fiction, including the story collections “Vampires in the Lemon Grove” and “Orange World and Other Stories” and the novels “Swamplandia!,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2012, and “The Antidote,” which came out earlier this year and was long-listed for the National Book Award. Russell, the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, was included in the magazine’s “20 Under 40” Fiction Issue in 2010.

Victor Lodato joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Largesse of the Sea Maiden,” by Denis Johnson, which was published in The New Yorker in 2014. Lodato is a playwright and the author of the novels “Edgar and Lucy,” “Mathilda Savitch,” the winner of the PEN USA Award for fiction, and “Honey,” which came out in 2024. He has been publishing fiction and nonfiction in The New Yorker since 2012.

Lauren Groff joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Faithful,” by Elizabeth Hardwick, which was published in The New Yorker in 1979. Groff’s works of fiction include the novels “Fates and Furies” and “Matrix,” both of which were finalists for the National Book Award, and “The Vaster Wilds,” which was published in 2023. A new story collection, “Brawler,” will come out in February of 2026. In 2024, she opened the bookstore The Lynx, in Gainesville, Florida.

Souvankham Thammavongsa joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Size of Things,” by Samanta Schweblin (translated, from the Spanish, by Megan McDowell), which was published in The New Yorker in 2017. Thammavongsa is a Laotian Canadian writer. Her publications include the poetry collections “Light” and “Cluster” and the story collection “How to Pronounce Knife,” which won the Giller Prize in 2020. She has been publishing fiction and nonfiction in The New Yorker since 2021.