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Here’s a Short Story Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig Wrote in College

ezra koenig columbia short story

Though common sense dictates that “once you put something on the Internet, it’s there forever,” the same apparently goes for the last remnants of the physically printed word as well. As is widely known, Vampire Weekend’s frontman Ezra Koenig was something of a creative writer during his time at Columbia University. And as Pitchfork points out, he also a contributed to the college’s literary magazine, Quarto. A recently unearthed Koenig short story can be read below, sporting themes of adolescence, transcendance, and maturation in New York City — not entirely unlike much of his band’s earliest work.

The story, “Off the Grid,” is only a page and a half long, and while it’s a touch melodramatic, Koenig’s flair for the intricacies of storytelling are there. Check out the musician’s Quarto biography and full short story below.