Local Author Luke Mehall Speaks at FLC

Luke Mehall, author of “The Great American Dirtbags,” a recently published collection of rock climbing-related short stories, gave a presentation on campus Tuesday evening about his new book.

Mehall, an author local to Durango, has published two books and regularly publishes a magazine of various authors’ work, The Climbing Zine, all of which are self-published, he said.

After the presentation in which Mehall recounted stories of climbing, friends and adventure, he read excerpts from his work.

Mehall’s literary work covers rock climbing, outdoor adventure and change in life, said Tim Foulkes, a friend of Mehall’s.

“You don’t have to enjoy climbing to enjoy this kind of literature,” Foulkes said.

The event consisted of short readings from the stories, a raffle and a haiku contest. It gave Mehall the opportunity to present his work and connect with a broader audience.

The event was organized by the FLC Bookstore in an effort to help bring a local author’s work into the spotlight, said Brooke Ingle, the manager of the campus bookstore.

The biggest struggle in self-publishing is promotion of your work, Mehall said.

“The bookstore tries its hardest to support local authors, since they don’t have the common media outlets like music does with videos and radio play, which puts them in a unique position to really need that support,” said Ingle.

In order to start getting writing out to an audience, self-published or otherwise, it is incredibly important for a writer to practice writing as much as possible, Mehall said.