Linfield alumnus Al Riske, class of ’76, poured his experiences with sex, religion and relationships into his first book, “Precarious: Stories of Love, Sex and Misunderstanding.”
Riske said he wrote the stories in “Precarious” throughout many years. One of them dates back to Riske’s days at Linfield. Riske first wrote “Just Admit it,” previously titled “The Sinner and the Would-Be Savior,” in one of Professor of English Ken Ericksen’s creative writing classes.
“Probably my earliest attempt at fiction was simply a reaction to having my heart broken,” Riske said. “I use fiction as a way to relive and analyze what happened and where I went wrong.”
While several of the stories are based on memories of his own relationships, Riske said much of the book stems from a lifetime of observing other people’s relationships.
Many of the narratives in Riske’s books contain traces of church politics or religion. Riske attributes this focus to being raised in a Baptist family and studying religion at Linfield.
Riske said he grew up struggling with the intersection of religion and sex and said he majored in religious studies at Linfield to help answer some of his questions about faith.
“You have desires that are viewed as something you shouldn’t act on outside of marriage, but you’re tempted to explore that area,” he said. “I wanted to present an honest portrayal of what that’s like and not deny that temptations happen.”
After his book was published, Riske said that he received positive reviews from his friends but that his family didn’t give the same feedback.
“I think they’re happy for me, but I suspect that I may have stepped on a few toes, which is not what I want to do,” he said. “I’m just trying to present an honest picture of people like me who grow up with the conflict of religion and sex.”
After graduating from Linfield, Riske worked in the newspaper industry as a reporter, copywriter and editor. For the past 17 years, Riske has worked in internal communications for Sun Microsystems, a computer company.
Riske said it was easy to transition from journalistic writing to creative writing because he used many of the same skills for both styles.
“Journalism is a great way for a person to hone their writing skills,” he said. “A lot of the same techniques are applied — observing, listening and describing things so that people see what you saw and hear what you heard.”
Although Riske is a trained writer, he said that some of his stories were rejected as many as 27 times before being published.
He said he advises aspiring writers to submit their work for publication as much as possible and to remember that the acceptance process is subjective.
“I like to tell people about the first story I had published,” Riske said. “I gave up on it after having it rejected dozens of times. Eight years later, I picked it up again, realized I still liked it and submitted it. It was accepted. That one ‘yes’ erased all the previous ‘nos.’”

Joanna Peterson
Culture reporter Joanna Peterson can be reached at [email protected]