Discussing the Beach House and Impending Death

Joy Williams reads her story “The Beach House,” from the January 15, 2024, issue of the magazine. Williams, a winner of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, is the author of five story collections, including “Ninety-Nine Stories of God” and “The Visiting Privilege: New and Collected Stories,” and five novels, such as “Harrow,” which was published in 2021.