Q&A with author A Igoni Barrett

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Born in Port Harcourt in 1979, A Igoni Barrett is the son of the Jamaican writer Lindsay Barrett. He studied agriculture at the University of Ibadan, won the BBC World Service short story competition in 2005, and in 2007 moved to Lagos, where he met his wife, the Dutch journalist and writer Femke van Zeijl. He is the author of two story collections, and his debut novel, Blackass
(2015), was longlisted for the inaugural FT/ OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Awards.

What books are currently on your bedside table?

The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera, Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth by Warsan Shire and My Mercedes is Bigger Than Yours by Nkem Nwankwo. There’s also James Joyce’s Ulysses, but it’s been lying there so long that it’s now part of the furniture.

What is the last thing you read that made you laugh out loud?

Adewale Maja-Pearce’s The House My Father Built. That slim book threw some hard punches at Nigerians, and many times I found myself doubling over at its painful truths.

What book changed your life?

The earliest one that I remember is Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales. My juvenile predilection for happy endings was forever cured by “The Little Mermaid”.

If you could own any painting, what would it be?

One of Van Gogh’s self-portraits, just to remind myself of how a committed artist treats even selfies.

When do you feel most free?

When I’m trapped at my writing desk.

What is the best piece of advice a parent gave you?

My mother was fond of saying that we can’t choose our family and yet we’re stuck with them, and so too should our friends, once chosen, be stuck with. My father sort of said the same thing when he told me never to kill off a fictional character without knowing why.

Which literary character most resembles you?

The female Igoni in my novel Blackass.

What does it mean to be a writer?

It means having the humility, the boldness, and the persistence to keep flinging questions at yourself and everything else. If you’re lucky, you’ll have some talent, too.

‘Blackass’ is published by Chatto & Windus