Q&A with Raymond Luczak

Looking at your bio, you seem to do it all. Poetry. Fiction. Memoirs. Plays. Films. Which of these genres are you most passionate about and why?

I like it all, not because I want to do it all but because having the ability to switch to the right genre to tell a story in a form best suited for that particular story means I don’t have to compromise as much when I write. I don’t feel limited by form. That said, I’m quite fond of poetry and fiction. I love poetry because it’s a fantastic way to explore the limits of language and stretch it beyond the barest realms of recognition. I don’t stay within the parameters of what’s considered experimental poetry, because I also happen to love formal poetry, especially when it’s done well, as in not calling too much attention to the fact that it’s been written in meter (or rhyme). As for fiction, I love telling stories, but the older I become, I’ve become more interested in the how’s of storytelling instead of just plot. What nuances can I find beneath the surface of my characters’ exterior lives on the page? I like meeting people in real life, and it’s equally true when I “meet” my characters on my computer screen. Who are these people, and why are they talking to me?

You’ve tackled the subject of being Deaf and gay in a number of publications, such as No Assembly Required: Notes from a Deaf Gay Life, Eyes of Desire 2: A Deaf GLBT Reader, and the novel Men with their Hands. First, can you specifically address how your deafness and sexuality play into your work? And which of your works on these subjects are you most proud of and why?

Deafness and sexuality are often seen as dangerous forces in our society. They both must be tamed, controlled immediately. Because I cannot hear as well as everyone else, I must work twice, if not thrice, as hard to compensate by spending 16 years of speech therapy only to be passed over because the quality of my speech doesn’t match what hearing people are used to from the speech of other hearing people. I’m damned if I speak, and I’m damned if I don’t speak. It’s the same way with sexuality, and I’m talking beyond just the LGBTQ spectrum. Heterosexuals can be kinky, so they probably feel similar pressures to conform, just like LGBTQ folks do. Mainstream society has the unfortunate habit of wanting to pigeonhole anyone who is remotely different into a predefined box and throw away the key. Of all the creative work in which I’d explored the intersectionalities of Deafness and gayness, I think I’m most proud of my books Mute  (A Midsummer Night’s Press) and Men with Their Hands (Queer Mojo). I believe both were respectively the first poetry collection and the first novel exploring the Deaf gay experience from an insider’s perspective to be published anywhere in the world. (Incidentally, my first book Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay & Lesbian Reader [Alyson] happened to be the very first book to focus on the Deaf LGBTQ experience in the world.)

As a Deaf, gay writer, have there been any special challenges that you’ve faced in terms of writing and getting published?

Writers know that if in order to get published, they must submit their work to editors. Deaf writers know that such editors may be ableist and/or expect to see stories about how hard it is to be Deaf. At a literary party not long after my Christopher Street cover essay “Notes of a Deaf Gay Writer” was published, an editor for a prominent magazine asked me for a piece about my challenges as a Deaf writer. I wrote about the fact that, really, my challenges were the same as any hearing writer’s because it was all about being judged for our work on the page, not whether we could hear or not. She turned it down simply because she wanted a sob story about being Deaf in the publishing world. I wasn’t interested in providing inspiration porn on demand. It wasn’t until after that experience I realized that editors may not realize their own ableist bias when reading work by Deaf and/or disabled writers. Editors and publishers have a long way to go when it comes to appreciating disability literature written by those who’d truly know! As a recent disability poetry anthology has pointed out, “we are not your metaphor.”

Can you give us an overview of your latest book, Compassion, Michigan? What is it about? What inspired you to write it? And how do you hope it will resonate with readers?

In a nutshell, Compassion, Michigan is a short story collection that encompasses some 130 years in Ironwood’s history, illuminating characters struggling to adapt to their circumstances starting in the present day, with its subsequent stories rolling back in time to when Ironwood was first founded. A Deaf woman, born into a large, hearing family, looks back on her turbulent relationship with her younger, hearing sister. A gas station clerk reflects on Stella Draper, the woman who ran an ice cream parlor only to kill herself on her thirty-third birthday. A bank teller, married to a soldier convicted of treason during the Korean War, gradually falls for a cafeteria worker. A young transgender man, with a knack for tailoring menswear, escapes his wealthy Detroit background for a chance to live truly as himself in Ironwood. When a handsome single man is attracted to her, a popular schoolteacher enters into a marriage of convenience only to wonder if she's made the right decision. I’d long wanted to write a book of short stories about my hometown patterned somewhat after Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, but in a totally different direction, but I didn’t know what stories I should tell. But once I finished writing “Stella, Gone,” I instantly knew that I should focus on female characters as part of Ironwood’s history. I wanted to explore writing historical literary fiction. It’s my hope that readers of Compassion, Michigan will reflect on what it means to have compassion for others unlike them. I’ve created a book trailer in American Sign Language (ASL).

As said above, you seem to do it all. But is there something as a writer that you haven’t tackled yet that you want to try your hand at?

I’d love to try my hand at writing an epic novel that feels luxurious yet not padded in terms of story and character, but it’s hard to focus on most anything long-term these days, what with the pandemic and the upcoming election going on. After six months of self-isolating myself, I’m still not used to this so-called “new reality.” I think I will be able to focus soon; as a writer, I have no other choice but to write against all odds.

This interview will be published just in time for October, which is when we celebrate LGBT History Month, National Coming Out Day, and National Book Month. First, what advice would you offer to those who are just coming out? Second, what advice would you give to someone who has an idea for a book, a play, or a short story, but does not know where to begin?

Coming out is not just a moment of announcing to friends or the world that you’re LGBTQ. It’s actually an ongoing process that never ends as long as we have homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and so on in our society. Coming out at first may be difficult, but as long as you understand that you’re not coming out just for yourself; you’re also coming out for the sake of others yet to come out after you. We’re indeed family in that sense. The more we all come out, the easier it will get for everyone to be themselves and the harder for homophobes and transphobes to deny our existence, our equal rights. 

For novice writers: just begin writing. You have to start somewhere anyway, so sit there and write and don’t worry about perfection. It’s okay to screw up your first draft; in fact, it’s better that you muck up your writing. Typos are fine. You need to give yourself permission to fail with your first draft. Don’t try to rewrite everything when you are in the heat of writing your first draft. Just keep moving forward to the next sentence, and the next after that, until you get to the last page. At that point you can edit and rewrite into something readable. First books are very hard because you have to learn so much from the process. But it does get easier the more you write; it’s a matter of disciplining yourself to write even when you don’t feel like doing it at the time. Getting it published is a whole other ballgame, so it’s better that you connect with others to help guide you through that process once your book is finished. There are many resources for novice writers available online.

So what’s next for Raymond Luczak? What can your readers expect from you over the coming year?

Gallaudet University Press will bring out my next title once upon a twin: poems in February 2021. Here’s what its current book description says: “When Raymond Luczak was growing up deaf in a hearing Catholic family of nine children, his mother shared conflicting stories about having had a miscarriage after—or possibly around—the time he was conceived. As an elegy to his lost twin, this book asks: If he had a twin, just how different would his life have been?” Aside from that, I have a few titles under consideration by various publishers, so who knows what else will come out in 2021?