The Writer’s VoiceHelen Simpson Reads “Lub Dub Lub Dub Lub Dub”Illustration by The New Yorker; Source photograph by Petina GappahSave this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyListen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Wherever You ListenSign up to receive our weekly Books & Fiction newsletter.Helen Simpson reads her story “Lub Dub Lub Dub Lub Dub,” from the September 7, 2026, issue of the magazine. A winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ E. M. Forster Award, Simpson is the author of seven short-story collections, including “Four Bare Legs in a Bed,” which won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1990, and “Cockfosters,” which was published in 2025.