Lucas Stoffel

How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter, the debut memoir by Luke Stoffel, is a Finalist in the 2026 National Indie Excellence Awards, honored in the Regional Non-Fiction: Midwest category of the 20th annual competition. The recognition arrives just weeks after the memoir won a 2026 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, giving the openly AI-assisted book two national honors in a single season.

I spent years behind glass in a Midtown office, waiting for a million-dollar dream that was never going to fulfill me. That is the thing AI can't touch. My purpose was never the job. There was a window in Midtown I used to stare out of. Glass tower, free coffee, my name finally floating through rooms I'd spent years trying to get into. And a voice in the back of my head that kept saying: Kid, this is it. Just sit here a few more years and the million-dollar dream is yours. Al

My first book, I fought the chatbot on every line. When it told me a passage was good, I did not take its word for it. The prose was good because I never let the machine be the judge. On the second book, I let it be the judge. The second book: a memoir written in grief, edited by a chatbot that told me it was extraordinary