Curtis Sittenfeld reads her story from the June 5 & 12, 2017 issue of the magazine. Sittenfeld is the author of five novels, including “Prep,” “Sisterland,” and “Eligible,” which came out last year.  Her first story collection, “You Think It, I’ll Say It,” will be published next year.

"A lot of the people in our program were nakedly emotional in a way that, in childhood, I had so successfully trained myself not to be that I almost really wasn’t. Before entering grad school, I had never felt normal, but here I was competent and well adjusted to a boring degree. I always showed up for class. I met deadlines. I made eye contact. Of course I was chronically sad, and of course various phobias lay dormant inside me, but none of that was currently dictating my behavior"