Dead-ending as an indifferent substitute teacher in Louisville, Kentucky, Dylan seeks diversion in a lighthearted exchange of escapist emails with an imaginative stranger. But what begins as a sweet and silly way to pass the time -- she's a Mars colonist, he's a Sanskrit scholar; he's hunting penguins in Antarctica, she's discovered transubstantiating breadsticks at a local Olive Garden -- turns into something both darker and infinitely more engrossing when she convinces him to meet in person during the worst cicada emergence in recent memory. Written in luminous prose, "Love on Mars" is a bittersweet and deeply funny look at the sort of intimacy that only makes us lonelier.
Also available as part of the story bundle You Don’t Look Like Your Picture: Stories of Love in the Digital Age, six stories for just $4.99.
Justin Keenan is a writer from Louisville, Kentucky who currently lives in Oakland, California. Before coming to DailyLit as our Managing Editor, he served as Managing Editor at The Harvard Book Review and as Design Editor for The Gamut. His stories have appeared in The Harvard Advocate and his poetry has appeared in The Louisville Review.
