Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Luikart.
Hi Paul, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a writer. Mostly fiction. It’s been a grand journey so far. I wish my writerly origin story had a bit more of a noble beginning, but it doesn’t. In high school, a girl I really loved broke my heart. I wrote a poem about it, the first time I’d ever really written anything expressive. Every high school kid who gets his/her heart broken writes a poem about it, but as common as it is (and as lame…the poem is the worst thing ever written…) there really was no other way to capture how I felt other than with images, metaphors. Plain talk just didn’t get it. Flash forward to now. I write every day. I’ve released six collections of short fiction. I get to teach creative writing. And, still, there is nothing as deeply personal and as truly communicative as story.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There is no road. Not as a writer. One of the joys, which doubles as terror, is forging a road through the wilderness every time I sit down at my keyboard. If there were no daily struggle like that to do it, there’d be no good work. I can only truly say that for myself, but I daresay most writers would say the same.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I write fiction. Mostly literary short stories and flash fiction (stories that come in at around 1,000 words) but I’m always also, pretty constantly, banging away at longer forms. What I do is I write every day, and I’m fortunate. I have a couple degrees, been nominated for some prestigious literary awards, even won some, published a number of books, and get to teach writing to fantastic students. But, what makes me a writer is that I write all the time. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes god-awful, but I do it. In addition to writing, though, I’ve always worked in social services, specifically working with men, women, and families experiencing homelessness. That’s always filled me full of stories, but, more than that, the people I’ve had the privilege to work with have shown me that everybody has a story worth telling, everybody is worth being known. I hope the fiction I write reflects that core value in some way.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Ah. Well, I’m in Chattanooga, so I will answer in a Chattanooga way. I like the outdoorsy-ness of it. Everybody says that about Chattanooga, but it’s a great place from which to explore the natural world. For example, all these beautiful creeks. I go out with my fishing rod all the time. I don’t think the city fully knows what it is or who it is, though. It doesn’t often think beyond its own boundaries. When I moved here, people asked me where I went to school. I assumed they were talking about where I did undergrad because I was a grown up. But, they meant high school. Grown men asking another grown man where he went to high school under the assumption that it was someplace in Chattanooga betrays a myopic view of the rest of the world. Which is too bad.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://paulluikart.com/paul-luikart
- Instagram: @paulluikart
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/PaulLuikartauthor/
- Other: https://paulluikart.substack.com
