Title page from “Painting,” Lev AC Rosen’s short-story debut
New Voices: “Painting”
By Lev AC Rosen
“For the first coat of paint she doesn’t follow any particular pattern. She takes the brush, heavy with white paint, and runs the length of the wall, creating figure eights, stripes, sometimes painting smiley faces or lightning bolts. Soon, one layer of paint has covered the wall, running over itself, dripping, and just barely covering the purple.”
Periodically, Esopus introduces the work of never-before-published young writers in our “New Voices” series. This first offering from Lev AC Rosen, a recent graduate of Oberlin College, ponders the relationship between art and family, friendship and love, past and present, in layers of white and purple.
“Painting” was Lev AC Rosen’s first published work. He is now the author of All Men of Genius (2011). Rosen received his BA from Oberlin College and his MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. He lives, works, and teaches creative writing in Manhattan.