Discuss “This Is How It Happens” by Molly Aitken
Details
[We meet every Sunday after a new New Yorker magazine is published.]
Greetings, Fictioneers!
On Sunday, February 8, 2025 at 4 pm CST/5 pm EST/3 pm MST/2 pm PST, at Zoom link https://bit.ly/cehcsunday, we will discuss the New Yorker Fiction story from the issue dated February 9, 2026: “This Is How It Happens” by Molly Aitken. This is Aitken’s first New Yorker piece. Her 2025 novel, “Bright I Burn”, was based on the life of the first woman burned as a witch in Ireland.
- Read “This Is How It Happens” at this link. Try a private or incognito window if blocked by the New Yorker's paywall or through the Libby app via your local public library “card”.
- Want to listen to it? Use the “Listen to this story” audio module on the story page (27 minutes at 1x speed) or at this link (28:43 with intro and ads). Blocked from those? Try this link.
- The author interview, “Molly Aitken on the Rajneesh Movement and Our Need for Connection”, is at this link.
“MOLLY AITKEN grew up on the south coast of Ireland. Her first novel, The Island Child, was longlisted for the Authors’ Club First Novel Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, for which she won the Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction, and has been dramatized for BBC Radio 4. She is currently studying for a PhD in Creative Writing and History at Sheffield Hallam University.”
- from Google Books.