The Writer’s Voice

Joan Silber Reads “Safety”

The author reads her story from the December 8, 2025, issue of the magazine.
Joan Silber in black and white next to a red background with cursive writing on it.
Illustration by Nicholas Konrad / The New Yorker; Source photograph by Shari Diamond

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Joan Silber reads her story “Safety,” from the December 8, 2025, issue of the magazine. A winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, Silber is the author of nine books of fiction, the most recent of which are the novels “Mercy” and “Secrets of Happiness.”