Writing his way through the World: Morningside Welcomes Tom Lutz

Last week, Morningside College welcomed Tom Lutz for Writers Series. Lutz is an American travel writer and Editor-in-Chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books. His work has earned him two New York Times Notable Book Awards and he has recently published And the Monkey Learned Nothing: Dispatches from a Life in Transit, a collection of short stories based on his travels. Lutz spoke about finding his love for writing after receiving praise from a teacher at a young age, and the non-traditional ways in which he developed his writing style. Lutz began his career writing literary reviews and academic prose until moving to Los Angeles and discovering his talent for creative story-telling. It is while screen-writing that he developed a keen sense of ‘finding the story,’ and shaping its narrative arc.

Lutz read two short stories from his recent publications, and spoke to students about the importance of continually reading and writing in order to truly become a good writer. As a non-fiction short story writer, Lutz spoke to the importance of moments in his travels in which a story worth telling appears and inspires him to write.  Lutz integrates his love for travelling and exploring with his love for writing, and is on a mission to travel to, and write about, every country in the world.