The New Haven Line

Jeff O'Keefe reads "The New Haven Line," a story about a young man's battle of wills with his mother, an ex-fashion model, set in New York's Penn Station. (Running Time: 20:18)

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My future wife and I once had plans to meet in Penn Station. When I arrived and didn't see her in the crowd, I pulled out a magazine, waiting for her to find me. Turned out she arrived and did the same thing. We stood there, fifty feet apart and reading our magazines, until we missed the train. Ridiculous, yes, but it was still a tense hour waiting for the next train. That hour was the spark for this story. I wanted to write a story where two people went head-to-head in that time span, and in that place.

About the Author:

Jeff O'Keefe: Jeff O'Keefe was a Wallace Stegner and John L'Heureux Fellow at Stanford University, where he also taught fiction writing as a Jones Lecturer. His work has been published in Epoch, Fourteen Hills and Swink.