BCC Shines A Light On: A. Joseph Black
Name of the piece published by BCC:
When/where was it originally published:
In Issue 5 of Irish literary journal The Incubator (June 2015)
What is the background of the piece? What led you to write it? What’s your process?
My grandfather, great grandfather and great great grandfather were all lighthouse men. I always thought that could prove a rich seam for me to mine. Then by coincidence I was paired with an artist for a project, to write a piece based on one of the artist’s works. The image they provided was a lighthouse on the back of a giant turtle and I wrote No Corners. So there was a very direct visual stimulus for the story initially.
How did you feel when it was first published and how have your thoughts or feelings on the piece changed from then to now?
I was delighted to see it in print then, and I’m delighted to get another trick out of it now! I think it’s proved pretty durable. It doesn’t try to do too much: it’s a little old- fashioned, an unpretentious fireside yarn. But then obviously there’s the fantastical aspects of it too and the fact that we don’t have full resolution because we don’t actually find out what was going on, just how it all played out. That gives it a little something extra, I like to think.
Is there a specific message you would like readers to take away from reading this piece?
The message is that– unless you’re giving evidence in court – the quality of the story you tell is more important than stuff like facts, or the truth, or accuracy, or realisticness, or any of that. I’m Irish and we’re extremely epistemologically elastic.
Where can readers find more of your work? (Website/social media, etc.)
I’m on Twitter as @a_joseph_black
