This is a link. Click on the orange name to read a good story.
Luke is probably one of my favorite writers going right now. I don’t think he has any books out and I’ve only read a few stories by him but he has this rambunctiousness to his storytelling that I like and a spontaneity to his narrative that rabbit punches your expectations. I don’t think he’s a heavy weight knockout type of writer, but he spars with you and he’s wiry and wily and American. And in real life he’s funny as hell, not like most writers you meet, who are so nervous and introverted they sit there guzzling Gin and Tonics like the answer to social awkwardness was scrawled at the bottom of the glass. I’ve only met him once so maybe I was just lucky, but whatever. He published a story of mine back in August when he was guest editing at Everyday Genius which was cool of him since his stories are full and descriptive and mine are lately like a paragraph long. This story Insides is a good one of Luke’s you should check out. Here’s a few lines too, but the story as a whole is worth the read and the 15 minutes of your time:
I teach freshman college. The other day, middle of class, me showing them all who’s boss, a woman’s voice is climbing through the scales. She’s singing up my spine. I got tears in my face. The kids are all staring at me.
You know why we get sick?
Giving away what we should have kept. You have to put your foot down. I’m sorry.
or this one:
Catherine says she feels awkward standing naked in front of animals. I tell you. I’ll love a woman for that.
Nothing much happens in this story but a guy in the hospital getting his insides prodded, but you get to watch. And you get to see. And you get to learn. In a way it’s like the best New Yorker story that tame and prudish magazine has never published. In a way Luke’s writing is a freewheelin’ as a the page could allow. He’s got another good story in the last issue of New York Tyrant called The Adventures of Eagle Feather but I think that one’s sold out now (it’s the one with Cherry from The Outsiders on the cover).
Anyway read Insides. Find more of Luke’s stories if you can. Good.
