Josiah Hatch arrived in Denver from Georgia in 1993. His most recent publication is “Journey to St. Thomas: Tales for our Time.” Long a fan of “The Canterbury Tales” and its flow of Middle English, which inspired his own book, he studied the language, and others, while at Oxford. In addition to his legal practice, he teaches courses in international business and economics at the Josef Korbel School for International Studies at the University of Denver. 

SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate?  

Hatch: The political and social wrangling of 2017-18 and the polarization of the U.S. populace, topped off by climate change, “forever” wars and eventually the upheaval of the COVID pandemic were all events that also took place in Geoffrey Chaucer’s age, the late 14th century. As an avid reader of literature, I found myself wishing that he were around to use his storytelling technique from “The Canterbury Tales” to present a snapshot of our complex time.  

Not being able to summon him up from the grave, I thought it might be interesting to try to reimagine his storytelling technique in our own time. The journey of pilgrims to the Shrine of St. Thomas Becket in “The Canterbury Tales” provided Chaucer with the opportunity to compare and contrast a whole range of different characters who were joined in a common purpose.  

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However, pilgrimages do not take place often in our own age, so I thought to substitute a package tour of American lonely hearts to St. Thomas in the Virgin islands aboard a cruise liner.  Delays and the appearance on the horizon of COVID-19 mid-trip keeps the passengers from docking in any Caribbean port, so they pass the time by telling stories and, in the end, get to know and enjoy each other’s views of life.  

SunLit: Place this excerpt in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole? Why did you select it?  

Hatch: The general prologue introduces and describes the various characters.  It is followed by 24 individual stories told by these passengers, who are from all walks of life and many different contemporary occupations or professions.  I selected it because it provides an overview of the voyagers, without spoiling their stories. 

SunLit: Tell us about creating this book. What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write?  

Hatch: I have loved languages and literature all my life and spent many years studying them.  Here, I saw the opportunity to try to use the approach of an early master to describe our own distracted age. 

Over my lifetime, I have worked in many contexts, including speechwriting, agency administration, international and domestic legal practice, and teaching graduate political economics. This type of project provided an opportunity to put these varied experiences to good use.  

SunLit:  What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter? 

Hatch: I became an even more ardent admirer of storytelling and character portrayal and an admirer of the labor involved in using a poetic structure to unspool a lengthy narrative that would remain artless and accessible.

SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?

Hatch: Stamina and doubt were challenges. Rhymed couplets of iambic pentameter are not necessarily acceptable to modern audiences unless the reasons for their use are clear.  I was kept working by the strong love of all sorts of poetry and the wish to share and to remind readers of the virtues of an approach that is seldom used in our time. 

“Journey to St. Thomas”

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I attempted to structure the book so that particular parts could be read aloud, whether by couples to each other or entertainers to a larger audience. Before the invention of the lightbulb, reading aloud in a group was a matter of necessity; while the advent of electricity brought convenience and a means of escape from the day-to-day, it lost the added beauty of in-person storytelling and deprived some readers of the musical appreciation of verse.

SunLit:  What’s the most important thing – a theme, lesson, emotion or realization — that readers should take from this book? 

Hatch: That, no matter who we are, we are all in the same boat on an existential level.  We grow stronger through knowledge of the community of experience that exists. We are not “modern” in the sense of being the culmination and highest refinement of humanity; despite the incredible recent scientific and educational achievements of our species, we need to continue to learn from each other essential means of living. 

SunLit: Walk us through your writing process: Where and how do you write?

Hatch: I write on my own, in my library, at a word processor, usually in the morning, but sometimes, when on a roll, whether downward or upward, I disappear for days into the project I am working on.  

In storytelling, I try to surprise, engage and explore, pretending I am telling the story for the first time. Thinking through the story before starting to write is important for me, but so is remaining flexible enough to explore avenues that present themselves as I go.

SunLit: How do we deal with aspirations that we cannot fulfill and accept that our own disappointments are not unique to us? Can we realize that balance and moderation are not “wishy-washy” means of approaching difficult issues?  

Hatch: Conducting ourselves, not smugly, but honestly when facing our own problems or those of others can be as difficult, but also more fulfilling than attaining a passing reputation for achievement.  

As the Roman poet Horace put it:  “Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem, non secus in bonis.”  “Keep an even keel when circumstances are difficult, but not less when things go well.” 

A few more quick questions

SunLit: Which do you enjoy more as you work on a book – writing or editing? 

Hatch: I find writing a better means of learning, and learning is my own ultimate goal.  Editing is very important, but frequently retrogressive.  I think it is particularly important to keep the editorial instinct on a reasonable leash when reviewing your own work.  

Too many writers of fiction become like Penelope in “The Odyssey,” weaving the tapestry during the day and unwinding it at night. Reviewing and revising is an important exercise, particularly with respect to poetry, but can take the life from verse if carried too far.  

SunLit: What’s the first piece of writing – at any age – that you remember being proud of?  

Hatch: I wrote an analysis of Seneca’s drama “Oedipus” in 1972 as a senior thesis at Princeton. In the paper, I posited that the modality of performance at the time of the Roman “parlor drama” dictated the nature of the writing.  

Without an understanding of the performance context and goals, scholars are apt to dismiss that form of poetry as overdramatic and sententious — an example of rhetorical excess rather than the expression of a literary form. 

SunLit: What three writers, from any era, would you invite over for a great discussion about literature and writing? 

Hatch: Dylan Thomas, Ben Jonson, and Samuel Johnson. That would be a very lively discussion by very opinionated, but talented writers and poets.  

SunLit: Do you have a favorite quote about writing? 

Hatch: “Antiquity, like every other quality that attracts the notice of mankind, has undoubtedly votaries that reverence it, not from reason, but from prejudice. Some seem to admire indiscriminately whatever has been long preserved, without considering that time has sometimes co-operated with chance; all perhaps are more willing to honour past than present excellence; and the mind contemplates genius through the shades of age, as the eye surveys the sun through artificial opacity. The great contention of criticism is to find the faults of the moderns, and the beauties of the ancients. While an author is yet living, we estimate his powers by his worst performance, and when he is dead, we rate them by his best.” – Samuel Johnson, “Preface to Shakespeare”

SunLit: What does the current collection of books on your home shelves tell visitors about you?

Hatch: I think my books suggest a wandering mind:  Latin, Greek, Italian and Old English texts and dictionaries, novels from all periods; books on international and corporate law. 

SunLit: Soundtrack or silence? What’s the audio background that helps you write?

Hatch: I write best in silence.  I have a very busy mind and love music. I concentrate much better when I do not have to shut out something that I like very much.

SunLit: What music do you listen to for sheer enjoyment?

Hatch: Polyphony, Bach, Handel, William Byrd, Chopin, Brahms Old Time banjo and fiddle. Opera.

SunLit: What event, and at what age, convinced you that you wanted to be a writer?

Hatch: I have been a reader of stories since I learned to read, and before that was read to on an everyday basis.  I always wanted to be a writer, but also had parents who wanted me to become a lawyer.  I tried to do everything, but writing was confined to short bits of entertainment for myself. 

SunLit: Greatest writing fear?

Hatch: That I will forget ideas before I write them down.

SunLit: Greatest writing satisfaction?

Hatch: Creating and sharing.  

Type of Story: Q&A

An interview to provide a relevant perspective, edited for clarity and not fully fact-checked.

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