Lucas Van Wyk Joel

Foghorn Fog poured over the giant red bridge that guarded the city by the sea.

I just posted a new short story I wrote called 'Foghorn.' It's about the role of foghorns -- literal and figurative -- in our lives. Take a look: lucasvanwykjoel.substack.com/p/foghorn

Students learning about storytelling

I’ve long dreamt of creating a makerspace, but for storytelling. Last night that happened with the launch of my new UC Irvine Story Lab program, which brings students together to learn about and practice with the tools involved in telling tales. Looking forward to watching the lab grow!

Reines and Rowland at 30: A tale of two Nobels How two professors defined their fields, changed the world, and won UC Irvine’s first two Nobel Prizes in the same year.

I also work as a staff science writer for @ucirvine.bsky.social. Recently, I wrote a big feature story about UCI's first two Nobel prizes. Check it out: ps.uci.edu/news/3383

I wrote a new short fiction story about a little magical red door someone discovers in a bookshop. lucasvanwykjoel.substack.com/p/little-red...

Screenshot of my ranking on a writing website called Substack. I'm #89 out of 100, as of 14 June 2025.

Screenshot of my ranking on a writing website called Substack. I'm #89 out of 100, as of 14 June 2025.

The website where I publish my stories (Substack) just let me know that my little Phoenix & Cricket publication is now on the top 100 list (#89) of all their literary publications. In the spirit of celebrating victories...yay! lucasvanwykjoel.substack.com

A memory moves across the sky. A Magic Camera photograph of a place long past.

In ‘Magic Camera,’ I ask people to use a little magical Lego camera to snap a picture of a memory from their life. Then I take the film and develop it into a photo made of letters. lucasvanwykjoel.substack.com/p/a-memory-m...

Hah

We are excited to announce that Lucas Van Wyk Joel, UC Irvine Physical Sciences Senior Science Writer, along with others, are taking part in @aps.physics ‘Building Trust in the Integrity of Science’ discussion on March 18th!

Ghost on the mountain. A story about memory and glowing tea.

'Ghost on the mountain.' A new short story from me, about memory and glowing tea. #creativewriting #writing #fiction #magicrealism

lucasvanwykjoel.substack.com/p/ghost-on-t...

The dragon of Marseille. A Magic Camera photograph of a princess dragon rider.

In ‘Magic Camera,’ I ask people to use a little magical #Lego camera to snap a picture of a memory from their life. Then I take the film and develop it into a photo made of letters. In this new photo, meet a five-year-old dragon princess rider in Marseille, France. open.substack.com/pub/lucasvan...

'Do You Wanna Funk?' A Magic Camera photograph of one colorful decade.

In ‘Magic Camera,’ I ask people to use a little magical Lego camera to snap a picture of a memory from their life. Then I take the film and develop it into a photo made of letters. In this latest post, a magic photo of one colorful decade. lucasvanwykjoel.substack.com/p/do-you-wan...

Bumper sticker sighting of the day: “Elvis didn’t need a website.”

A little book review: Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. A story about everything.

I wrote a book review for one of my favorite books of all time, Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Reading it helped me understand how Saint-Exupéry wrote his most famous book, The Little Prince. Check it out: lucasvanwykjoel.substack.com/p/a-little-b...

Matt and the magic seashell. A Magic Camera photograph of treasure from forever ago.

In ‘Magic Camera,’ I ask people to use a little magical Lego camera to snap a picture of a memory from their life. In this latest post, a SoCal yoga teacher named Matt takes a photo of a forever-ago memory from a beach. lucasvanwykjoel.substack.com/p/matt-and-t...

An illustration showing a sail ship enveloped by clouds.

What if you opened your front door only to find a ship waiting to take you to unknown lands. Would you climb aboard? I dance with this idea in ‘Tafelberg,’ a fairy tale I wrote while on the slopes of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. lucasvanwykjoel.substack.com/p/tafelberg

A graphic with a photo of marine biologist Ed Ricketts.

‘Thank you, Ed Ricketts’ is a personal essay about how art in the form of writing helped me see the world in an utterly new light. I hope it shifts things in you in a goodly kind of way. Yours, LVWJ

lucasvanwykjoel.substack.com/p/thank-you-...

First post here, a little fiction about a mountain that’s actually a ship.