Kurt Luchs

Poet, Fiction Writer, Creative Nonfiction Writer

Kalamazoo, MI
Michigan US

Author's Bio

I started as a poet but then began writing humor for such outlets as the New Yorker, the Onion, and McSweeney's Internet Tendency, among others. I also wrote comedy for television (Politically Incorrect and the Late Late Show) and for radio (The Complete Sheet and American Comedy Network). In 2002 I founded the literary humor site TheBigJewel.com, which became dormant 17 years later in 2019, with an archive that will remain available online. In 2017 Sagging Meniscus Press published my humor collection, It's Funny Until Someone Loses an Eye (Then It's Really Funny). Recently I returned to poetry and finally started sending it out, landing many publications: The American Journal of Poetry, Antiphon, Atlanta Review, The Big Windows Review, The Bitter Oleander, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Clover: A Literary Rag, Crosswinds Poetry Journal, Emrys Journal, Fjords Review, Former People Journal, The Furious Gazelle, The Green Light Literary Journal, Grey Sparrow Journal, Harpoon Review, The Ibis Head Review, Into the Void, Light, Minetta Review, The Nervous Breakdown, The New Guard Literary Review, Noctua Literary Review, Otis Nebula, pamplemousse, The Penn Review, Phantom Drift, La Piccioletta Barca, Plume Poetry Journal, The Poet's Billow, Poydras Review, Quail Bell Magazine, Reed Magazine, Right Hand Pointing, Roanoke Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Shot Glass Journal, Soundings East, South Florida Poetry Journal, Star*Line, The Sun Magazine, Talking Gourds - Telluride Institute Literary Arts Festival, Third Coast, Triggerfish Critical Review, Verse-Virtual, Wilderness House Literary Review, Yemassee Journal. My first poetry chapbook, One of These Things Is Not Like the Other, was published in 2019 by Finishing Line Press. My first full-length poetry collection, Falling in the Direction of Up, was published in May 2021 from Sagging Meniscus Press. In 2022 SurVision Books in Dublin published my poetry chapbook The Sound of One Hand Slapping, after it was named one of the winners of the James Tate Poetry Prize 2021. Sagging Meniscus will publish my second full-length poetry collection in 2024, Death Row Row Row Your Boat.

Publications & Prizes

Creative Nonfiction

Journal:
Exacting Clam

Fiction

Journal:
The New Yorker
Prizes won: 

Pushcart Prize 2022 for the poem "Father's Belt"

James Tate Poetry Prize 2021 winner for the chapbook The Sound of One Hand Slapping (SurVision Books)

Eyelands Book Award 2021 Short Stories for the book It's Funny Until Someone Loses an Eye (Then It's Really Funny) (Sagging Meniscus)

Grand Prize Winner, 2019 Atlanta Review International Poetry Contest, for the poem "Suzie"

First Runner-Up / Second Place, Fischer Poetry Prize, 2019 Telluride Institute Literary Arts Festival, for the poem "Tokyo Rose"

Winner, 2017 Bermuda Triangle Poetry Prize

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
White
Prefers to work with: 
Adults
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
Cheektowaga, NY
New York
Raised in: 
Wheaton, IL
Illinois
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Apr 05, 2024