#fivechapters.com

[fwriction]

I know I've posted Ben Greenman's stories already for the Story of the Day, but I'm just about to head out to an event in Bryant Park for Underwater New York, which Greenman will be a part of, and I couldn't resist sharing this story. "Barn," appeared in FiveChapters.com (one of my favorite online literary journals), and can be found in Greenman's new collection, What He's Poised To Do:

"I guess I felt sorry for him, because I went back to his house after that, but we didn’t do anything except sit around on the couch with the outsides of our legs touching each other. Then he leaned over and kissed my shoulder. His lips were cool on my skin."

[fwriction]

I'm not going to lie: I have fallen in love with Emma Straub and her writing. After getting my hands on her debut, Fly-Over State, during a recent raid of Bookcourt, I find myself drawn in by Straub's voice, her vision of the world. She deals with characters in the best possible way, in the way a great writer should: with care.

Today's Story of the Day comes from FiveChapters.com, a fantastic literary journal that publishes stories in five parts. Enjoy Straub's "Puttanesca," because I certainly did:

“Nice to meet you,” Stephen said. His teeth were beautiful products of adolescent orthodontia: straight and well spaced. Rose hadn’t mentioned the teeth. In fact, Rose hadn’t mentioned anything, other than that Stephen too had lost his wife, and was chafing at the uniformity of the (aged, female) participants of the bereavement group he’d been attending. She definitely hadn’t mentioned his shoulders, or his lion’s mane, which crested and cooed at Laura as though it had a voice all its own, each blond curl telling her why this couldn’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t work.