BCC SHines A Light On: Jacqueline Doyle

BCC Shines a Light On:

Jacqueline Doyle

Name of the piece published by BCC:

“Raney’s Imaginary Friend”

When/where was it originally published:

The Ginger Collect in 2018

Tell us more about your piece! What is the background of the piece? What led you to write it? What’s

your process?

I’ve always been curious about imaginary friends. My husband had an imaginary friend as a child. I didn’t. A friend of mine didn’t learn until she was in her fifties that she’d once had an imaginary friend. I was intrigued by that, and by imaginary friends and doubles in literature. I’m nothing like Raney, but I’ve taught Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” many times. I’m often inspired by literary texts.

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 unearthed this story for BCC’s Halloween call not long after I published a story in Five South about a Bartleby-like male academic who was writing about Melville’s “Bartleby.” I was surprised by the parallel conceptions between “Raney’s Imaginary Friend” and “The Beautiful Girl on the Flying Trapeze,” though the characters and stories are quite different. I don’t usually write about academics, or literature. My forthcoming story in BULL has no literary references at all!

Is there a specific message you would like readers to take away from reading this piece?

I don’t know that there’s a message, but I was thinking about women crossing boundaries, un-housing themselves, finding freedom. As in Gilman’s story, there’s ambiguity about what that might mean.

What else would you like to tell readers about your writing? (Doesn’t have to refer only to your BCC piece)

I write more flash fiction than longform fiction, more creative nonfiction than fiction. I published a flash fiction chapbook with Black Lawrence Press called The Missing Girl. I often write about women who have been silenced. For the last few years I’ve been immersed in a challenging hybrid project called The Lunatics’ Ball, partly autobiographical, partly biographical (with profiles of over thirty “lunatics”).

Where can readers find more of your work? (Website/social media, etc)

www.jacquelinedoyle.com

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005204416114

www.twitter.com/@doylejacq

@jacqdoyle.bsky.social