Author Matthew Pitt: "It's Like I Make a Mold and Then Immediately Break It"

Matthew Pitt at his book reading at KGB Bar.

Photo by: Brooke Niemeyer

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER

Author Matthew Pitt moved from New York City three years ago but returned last night to read an excerpt from his book at the KGB Bar in the East Village. He told NiteSide last night that the greatest challenge he faced in putting together his new book was his own style of writing. 

"I tend to put myself in a corner because the stories never seem the same from one to the next, so they're often wildly different in subject matter, tone and the type of character that I'm investing into that particular story," Pitt said. "It's like I make a mold and then immediately break it, which is exciting for me. I like that restlessness."

"Attention Please Now" is a collection of stories, which Pitt said was a long time in the making. 

"It's been ten years since I wrote the first story," Pitt said. "But after doing ten drafts or so, I got to a point where I was proud of it."

While he says the plots of his stories don't have a common theme, his characters do have one thing in common.

"They're all living a moment where they look around and they're on a high wire and there's no net beneath them," Pitt said. "They're at that point in their live where they have to decide, 'am I going to make it all the way across or am I going to jump or what's going to happen?' It kind of captures them at moments of crisis."

Pitt said he draws off his theater background to create characters but sometimes wishes he could draw off his own adventures. 

"I am really envious of friends that can take pieces from their own experiences and craft them into stories," Pitt said. "I am not able to plagiarize my own life."