Read the Ottessa Moshfegh Story Behind a Florida Professor’s Firing

The latest target of book banning and censorship is Vinita Prabhakar, an English professor who dared to assign her students Ottessa Moshfegh’s short story “Bettering Myself.” Prabhakar, who taught the story for years, was fired from her position at South Florida State College after one of her English students said the story made them “a bit uncomfortable.” Fred Hawkins, the college president responsible for Prabhakar’s firing, said the quiet part out loud when he called the story “political.” Because of course, to read politically—and to sit with and examine one’s own discomfort—is dangerous to those who would like to keep us from expanding and challenging our belief systems.

After winning The Plimpton Prize in 2013, “Bettering Myself” was published in both The Paris Review and Recommended Reading. You can read the story in our archives for free.