Luke Wortley

A single line from a literary magazine form rejection letter after over a year of sitting inactive that reads: "Ultimately, while we didn't feel that your work was quite right for [Journal Name Here] at this time, we are grateful to have read it."

This was the thing that finally turned the knob for me back to "on to the next one." I've submitted one thing in the last 13 months - a packet of poems. It's reflective of all the things I hate about the literary publishing world. One cold sentence. 13 months of inactivity. No pay even if accepted.

ADDICTION, FOR SCALE A squirrel eating a star in the mouth of god

Barton Smock

@bartonsmock.bsky.social

“Inheritance” by Luke Wortley “My father’s horns come in during the divorce proceedings. They erupt, seemingly overnight, arcing around the sides of his head in a ribbed, cochlear spiral, ending in rounded tips.”

New Short Story, Long story tomorrow!

In the meantime… published this amazing @lukewortley.bsky.social story around this time last year!

"My father’s horns come in during the divorce proceedings. They erupt, seemingly overnight, arcing around the sides of his head in a ribbed, cochlear spiral…"

All social media genuinely makes me feel bad about myself, but if I ever want hope of returning to some form of a literary life, then I have to at least be tangentially connected to it, and I am just not sure how sustainable that is.

Vaccines cause adults
Tylenol causes pain relief
Neurodiversity is good

I've often thought about what I would've done differently, and I don't think I did anything wrong. I tried my best in isolation to market t, had challenges beyond my control, and ultimately relied on the goodwill of a few folks, and I'll be forever grateful. Just wasn't enough to sell more than 10

Plus being a parent without options for babysitting, etc., it's not feasible. The honest truth is that the literary community doesn't feel much like a community an overwhelming majority of the time -- in person and online. My first book pub really taught me a lot, and none of it positive.

there's a lot here in Indy...it's just fraught. my MFA program dominates a lot of the local scene, and they literally pretended my first book didn't exist.

I’m finding it hard to make meaning out of anything. No friends locally. No family locally. Third career, one I don’t care about even slightly but had to remove myself from previous one for many reasons. Total isolation. I try to do stuff. Just doesn’t matter. Nobody to talk to about anything

I think one of the omnipresent pieces of fact that drives my inability to create is knowing that I have nothing to say that hasn’t already been said better by so many other, better people many times over.

Planning on finally finishing a few pieces of writing this week. Been a while since I said, yes, I think I’m done.

And that feels like such a strange place to be. I’m just saying that it feels kinda pointless to keep attempting to create when it’s very hard to actually improve in isolation, which is where a lot of us sit, I believe. Sometimes I wonder what is even possible without some kind of anointing.

Mind you, this is not because I think my work deserves more recognition or anything. I’m kinda coming to terms with being a mediocre writer at best. It’s just that, I kinda already hit the ceiling, and there’s literally nowhere else to go, and I can’t shell out hundred$ for sub fees anymore

It is pretty amazing to see people go from “the left is the enemy of democracy and must be purged” to “who can really know why good kids do bad things?”

That is mercifully good to hear.

I actually had no idea. I don’t think I’ve invested enough in Bluesky nor the literary community on social for so long that I didn’t really have any idea. I just know that, when I do check in, it feels quiet without that kind of knowledge bc I wasn’t invested. Interesting, though.

Interesting. Early Twitter was hella strange . I've been, to put it mildly, less than active on bsky. I know the technical capacity it offers for customization, portability, and lack of ads, etc. I am very curious if anyone here has seen it feel very active, not implying it's not already alive.

Just was curious. I never said it's a bad thing or that the site is bad or anything resembling a critique so much as a genuine question of how active of a space it feels for people, particularly writers. I actually want to know. For me, I'm well aware that my level of "engagement" is dependent on me

Is Bluesky very active for many people?

Have to post joy. What a fun time teaching my little one to paint and have fun with it without being perfect.

The cover of the Luke Wortley book Shared Blood

Monster My son and I are on a hike. I'm tying my son's shoes when a monster crawls out of the woods and devours us whole. We barely avoid the teeth on the way down its gullet, slipping painfully into the cavernous stomach. We wander around for hours until we hear a rumbling above. Throughout the next few days, the monster swallows another father and son followed by still more pairs of fathers and sons. Until we populate the bottom of the stomach and whisper greetings to each other, decide that, yes, this is our life now, and we'd better make the most of it. So, we build a city in the stomach and listen for the soft rumbling here and there that means our population has grown. On my way to the grocery store, I befriend another father named Marcus, who affectionately changes my name every time I see him in the weeks to come. I never correct him. We share beer and watch our sons play together in the park. It suddenly occurs to us that we haven't heard the rumbling since we met. We awkwardly part ways after a few looks upward toward the mammoth throat. The city goes quiet, all the traffic stops, and the slow silence sets in. Nobody talks for weeks after that, and everyone stays in their spacious, modern apartments, not venturing out except to go to the store, and even then, everything is done quietly, the only blips of sound ringing out of the cash registers. The quiet drags on, and eventually we all forget each other's names. One day, we hear the rumbling above and cheer wildly.

Day 22 of the #sealeychallenge

August 22nd- Shared Blood, Luke Wortley

This collection of prose poems from @lukewortley.bsky.social and @gnashing-teeth.bsky.social feels surreal and magical and true all at once

Yall I started reading a “Terms of Use and Privacy Statement” in earnest tonight, and I’m just so not here for any of it.

Sent a manuscript acceptance offer today for one of our 2027 book picks & she said yes!

We now have:

Both book picks for 2026

Both book picks for 2027

More info soon 🤐

My titles are getting fun and playful again. Thanks in particular to @danielmiller.bsky.social and @toddedillard.bsky.social for so many reminders to make writing fun again.

Not necessarily. I mean, like, there aren't clear classifications like the pantoum, the sonnet, the cento, the golden shovel, the sestina, etc. for prose poetry. I suppose you could modify all those to fit the prose poem form. I want to invent one lol

Just now occurred to me...I don't know of any formal prose poetry. Certainly there has to be something out there, no?

Understood this is hella niche in 2025 but one thing that gives me joy is that two interests of mine are in the best competitive meta they’ve ever had — Warcraft 3 and NCAA wrestling. Not bc it’s evenly distributed in levels but bc the skill is diffuse enough to be awe inspiring at the top level.

You are right, of course. MFA brain and all that. I don’t think I ever got over/fully accepted that I’m not going to be the writer I wanted to be for a host of reasons. Tbh I simply have no confidence that anything I imagine or report is (regardless of quality) worth putting down on the page/screen

I also have no community to discuss anything literary, so that's part of it. I'd like to get back into it, and I know I sound like I'm just whining, but it's so unbelievably crushing to get to the page and feel defeated before I've even tried to type a single word.

I just can't find the fun anymore...I have such limited time to create, and I don't know a world that feels good writing for its own sake because nothing I have to say is really worth spending that kind of precious time on. I could be playing with my kids, getting chores done, etc. It's just hard.