Interview with Author Matthew Pritt

Matthw Pritt's story "A Watercolor Painting of a Data Center" took us by surprise (we love surprises) with its gritty, speculative, and yes, weird depiction of an absurd but not entirely unimaginable future. There's humor in there too, which makes the piece an easy read. We were happy to catch up with Matthew via a short interview and learned a little about how he sees the world (spoiler: it's weirdly). Enjoy!

When did you realize you were weird?

I was today years old when …

No, I’ve known for a while. My parents knew I was weird before I did, when I was four years old and I lined up all of my toy cars throughout the house, moving them all an inch at a time to simulate a traffic jam. But really, I think everyone is weird. Even the most “normal” behaviors are usually weird, if you think about it. Isn’t it weird that anyone would become emotionally invested in athletes throwing a ball through a metal ring or about two fictional people in a relationship? Is that any less weird than imagining a world in which someone gets a job peeing on servers at a data center? Perhaps, but it’s still weird.

Advice on creating that you’ve learned by trial and error?

Don’t scare yourself off of your own ideas. I’ve been a lot more interested lately in whether my ideas are unique than whether they’re good. Is an idea undercooked? That’s okay. Because a story can change so much once you start it, it doesn’t really matter if something is fully formed in your head. Is an idea stupid? Good, the world is a stupid place, you can make it work. Is an idea cliché? Well, you’ve given yourself an opportunity to subvert that cliché. What really matters to me is that my work is unmistakably me. Flaws can be edited out later, but if you shut yourself down before you start, you might miss out on a chance to do something special. And then if you’re done and what you created is unsalvageably bad, you can just move on to the next thing. 

What color is the number four?

Chartreuse.

If you weren’t a writer, what other type of creative would you be?

Musician, for sure. I actually went to school for music composition, so if anything I should already be doing that instead of writing. It wasn’t until after I graduated that I truly realized that it wasn’t the music that I loved about songwriting, it was the words. I’m impressed by anyone that can manage to say something in a medium without using words, though, be it visual art, music, or something else.

What’s the one problem with the human condition you wish could be fixed? 

Incuriosity. Which seems silly to say because kids are famously curious as they learn about the world. It also seems that as we grow up and think we have things figured out, we lose that curiosity. Unfortunately, having all the answers to everything ever at our fingertips has only made us less curious. As I get older, I want to continue to find all the things I’ve been hilariously wrong about for my entire life. Why would I want to leave “experiencing new things” to the younger generations?

What’s your favorite kind of cookie?

I make an absolutely incredible fluffernutter cookie. It’s a peanut butter cookie stuffed with a peanut butter/marshmallow cream filling, rolled in sugar and baked. I get asked to bring them to just about every family gathering. Hit me up for the recipe.

Matthew Pritt (he/him) is an Appalachian writer of speculative and literary fiction. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming in Tenebrous Press, Stanchion, and Vast Chasm Magazine, among others. He lives in West Virginia with several cats, pictures of which can be seen on his BlueSky @MatthewTPritt.