Discuss “Floating” by Souvankham Thammavongsa
Details
[We meet every Sunday after a new New Yorker magazine is published.]
Greetings, Fictioneers!
On Sunday, March 29, 2025 at 4 pm CST/5 pm EST/3 pm MST/2 pm PST, on Zoom, we will discuss the New Yorker Fiction story from the issue dated March 30, 2026: “Floating” by Souvankham Thammavongsa. You are welcome to join us.
We discussed Thammavongsa’s “Bozo” in April of 2024.
- Read “Floating” 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 (23 minutes at 1x speed) or at this link (24:47 with intro and ads). Blocked from those? Try this link.
- The author interview, “Souvankham Thammavongsa on Dating and the Clarity of Age”, is at this link.
Souvankham Thammavongsa is a Laotian-Canadian poet and short story writer. In 2019, she won an O. Henry Award for her short story, "Slingshot", which was published in Harper's Magazine, and in 2020 her short story collection "How to Pronounce Knife" won the Giller Prize.
Life and career
Thammavongsa was born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand in 1978. She and her parents were sponsored by a family in Canada when she was one year old. She was raised and educated in Toronto, Ontario.
Thammavongsa studied at the University of Toronto, majoring in English. She has never taken an MFA course, and says that she has learned to write by reading. Some of her favorite authors are Alice Munro, Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor, and Tennessee Williams.
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Her novel “Pick a Colour” won the 2025 Giller Prize.
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