The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Thammavongsa, Souvankham. How to Pronounce Knife. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2020.

How to Pronounce Knife is a collection of 14 short stories. It is author Souvankham Thammavongsa's fiction debut.

In the title story, a child of Lao immigrants attends school in an unnamed North American country. She is learning to read. She brings a book home and asks her father how to pronounce a word she does not recognize—"knife." Still new to English, he does not recognize the word either and mispronounces it. The child repeats the mispronunciation in school the next day and refuses to believe her classmates when they correct her. She is sent to the principal's office, but when she returns home, she does not tell her father that he was wrong.

In “Paris,” a Lao immigrant named Red works at a chicken processing plant in a small town. Many of the other women at the plant have gotten nose jobs and then been promoted to working in the front office, and Red considers doing the same. Her boss Tommy promotes the women he is attracted to, but Red feels she is hopelessly ugly. One day, Red watches Tommy leave the plant with one of the women from the front office. They go to his car. Suddenly, Tommy's wife arrives and begins screaming at Tommy. Tommy and the woman drive off and Tommy's wife approaches Red, weeping on her shoulder. Red cries along with her.

In “Slingshot,” a woman recalls an affair she had with a man named Richard when she was 70 years old and he was 32. Richard was the narrator's neighbor and he often threw parties. She began attending these parties and they developed a sexual relationship. One day, Richard took the narrator to his friend Eve's house to meet her new boyfriend Daniel. The narrator realized that Eve and Richard had feelings for each other. A short time later, the narrator and Richard stopped seeing each other. Daniel died and the narrator saw Eve and Richard looking very close at his funeral. The narrator saw Richard again years later on the street but pretended not to know him.

In “Randy Travis,” a woman recalls her childhood, shortly after her family immigrated to North America from Laos. Her mother was often alone and spent her time listening to the radio. She developed an interest in country music, and in particular, the singer Randy Travis. She became increasingly obsessed with him, abandoning all other pursuits and even disparaging the narrator's father for not being more like Randy Travis. Eventually, the obsession dissipated and the narrator's mother developed a gambling addiction in its place. She died a short time later in a casino parking lot.

In “Mani Pedi,” a Lao man named Raymond retires from his boxing career and starts working at his sister's nail salon. He discovers he is good at the job and enjoys it. He develops a crush on a client, Miss Emily. When his sister tells him that he does not have a chance with Miss Emily (because she is white and upper class), he explains that he knows this and does not care. Just thinking about her makes his life brighter because it gives him hope.

In “Chick-A-Chee!,” a Lao person reflects on their childhood, remembering the first time their father took them trick-or-treating for Halloween. However, he misunderstood the pronunciation of the term and told the narrator and their brother they were supposed to shout “Chick-A-Chee!” when they knocked on a door and asked for candy.

In “The Universe Would Be So Cruel,” a Lao man named Mr. Vong creates wedding invitations for other Lao immigrants in his town. He believes that by producing the perfect invitation, he is securing a happy marriage for the couple. When his daughter is to be married, he executes the invitation process flawlessly, but her fiance leaves her at the altar. Afterward, he claims that he made a mistake, sending one invitation out later than the others. He wants her to believe that this is why her fiance left, since the alternative is that he simply did not love her.

In “Edge of the World,” a woman contemplates her childhood and her mother's difficulty assimilating into a new culture as a Lao refugee. The narrator's mother was lonely and isolated and had trouble relating to others in social situations. She also had nightmares about the trauma she endured as a refugee. The narrator recalls her mother telling her she believed the world was flat, but in retrospect, she realizes that there were a lot of things about the world her mother knew that she did not. Shortly after this conversation, her mother left the family and never returned.

In “The School Bus Driver,” a Lao man named Jai is uncomfortable with his wife's close relationship with her boss, Frank. She claims that their friendship is normal in the new country to which they have immigrated, but Jai remains suspicious. He also dislikes the fact that she has Anglicized his name, calling him “Jay” instead of “Jai,” which means “heart” (114) in Lao.

In “You Are So Embarrassing,” a Lao woman sits outside of her estranged daughter's workplace, waiting to see her come outside. She recalls picking her up from school one afternoon and learning from a classmate that her daughter was going by the name “Celine” at school, instead of her Lao name, “Chantakad” (123).

In “Ewwrrrkk,” a woman recalls her grandmother talking to her about sex when she was a child, telling her that she would have sex with the first man that told her he loved her. The narrator notes that she was wrong, as the man she lost her virginity to did not tell her he loved her at all.

In “The Gas Station,” a woman named Mary lives alone in a small town and works as a freelance accountant. She develops a sexual attraction to a gas station attendant and initiates a relationship with him. When this relationship ends, she decides to leave town.

In “A Far Distant Thing,” a Lao woman recalls a friendship she had when she was twelve years old with another girl in her apartment building, Katie. The narrator's parents and Katie's mother worked together at a nail polish factory. Eventually, Katie's mother was promoted and she moved out of the building. They lost touch soon after. Recently, the narrator saw Katie downtown. She was wearing the uniform she wears to her job cleaning offices and Katie was dressed in business attire. The narrator did not greet Katie. She returned home to the apartment where she still lives with her father.

In “Picking Worms,” a Lao woman remembers getting a job with her mother on a hog farm when she was in high school. They were both responsible for picking worms out of the soil. The narrator was asked to a school dance by a boy named James. The narrator's mother liked James and got him a job at the hog farm as well. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted and became her boss. On the night of the dance, James came to pick the narrator up, but she did not answer the door.