Meet Russell Mattinson - SWF21 Flash Fiction Prize Winner

Russell is a Stockholm-based writer and member of the Stockholm Writer’s Group. Born and raised in the UK, he came to Scandinavia in 2000, and established himself as a copywriter and marketer.

Russell attended his first SWF in 2021 and is currently working on his debut novel, a coming-of-age drama set in northern England in 1985. Aside from writing, Russell is a keen swimmer, dog-lover and aspiring piano-player.

Despite being a first time SWF attendee in 2021, he immediately grasped the unique energy of the festival, and actively contributed to the good atmosphere with his engagement, and won the SWF2021 Flash Fiction Prize during the festival.

We were able to interview Russell about his festival experiences and his insights really drive home the importance of an active writing community.

A fairly common thread in the SWF community is that many of us have dreamed of writing for years before we ever had the time, resources, or ability to sit down and actually do it. When did you first decide writing was something that you wanted to actively pursue, and then how long was it before you started writing seriously?

Well, I suppose I’ve been creating worlds ever since I was a kid playing with my LEGO in the 70s. I’ve written diaries since I was 11 years old, and I wrote the beginning of a glitzy super-soap-inspired blockbuster when I was 15. I suppose I started taking writing seriously when I studied Creative Writing at university in Liverpool. As part of the study-program we went on a writing retreat to Snowdonia in Wales, and I wrote a short story about life and love in a lonely village in the mountains. My professor raved about it and insisted that I continue to write. I did, but the ups and downs of my own life got in the way for many years, and I had a long period where I didn’t write. Then in 2019 I attended a writer’s workshop at Yale and received vast encouragement and praise for my work. It was then that I started to write seriously again and to believe that I really could do it.

What is your primary creative writing genre, and did this change over the years, or has this always been your main focus?

As an LGBTQ+ person, my writing tends to have that theme as a backdrop. I’m also from the North of England, which also seems to weave itself into my stories, almost like a character in itself. However, I don’t feel tied to a certain genre. Right now I would say literary LGBTQ+. I like exploring identity, otherness, and the struggle of finding one’s place in life.

Can you tell us about some of your favorite SWF moment(s) and what really stuck with you after the festivals?

May 2021 was actually the first SWF I attended, and I was just blown away to find that I have a writer’s community right on my doorstep. I took part in the manuscript makeover, which was an extremely valuable experience and has helped me to consider aspects of my manuscript that I previously hadn’t thought about. There was also a fantastic, hands-on presentation by a real-life editor with tons of tips on what we writers need to think about and how an editor thinks. That was also extremely useful to me.

And of course I was totally thrilled to win the Flash Fiction Prize, which once again was an incentive for me to keep writing and to keep believing in myself - which all of us creative people need to feel now and again, right?

What would you say were the biggest takeaways for you from SWF?

The biggest takeaway by far has been the brilliant people I have met as a result of attending the festival, and the encouragement and support they have given me. You guys know who you are! It is through these people that I was invited to join the Stockholm Writer’s Group and got to know the local writer’s network. This is really what makes you grow as a writer – having other writers who encourage, critique, support and push you, and of course being able to give the same in return. Attending a festival like SWF is as much about community as it is about craft, which I really appreciated.

Do you recall any moments that helped clarify things in a new way, or provided new insights into specific areas of the craft?

Absolutely. I am very interested in structure, and how we as writers figure out our plots and characters - particularly as someone working on a first novel and not used to writing something so vast. Sessions such as Scene & Sequel with Damon Suede were very engaging for me, because as much as writing is about creativity, it is also about sense and structure, and technically understanding how certain types of scenes work. It was interesting to explore some of the mechanics to be aware of behind the writing.

How have you evolved as a writer since attending your first Stockholm Writers Festival, and what part did the festival itself play in that evolution?

I think both the festival and the discussions that we have in the writer’s group have made me much more ruthless in terms of editing my own work. As writers we tend to repeat ourselves a lot, to get stuck looping around certain topics and to refuse to delete certain poetic details. I have become much sharper as a writer, better at killing my darlings and at considering every word from the reader’s perspective rather than that of my own ego.

Can you tell us a little about a piece you’ve written in the past that you are particularly proud of, published or not — just something that still moves you every time you revisit it?

To be honest, I would say it’s my old diaries. I’ll see things I wrote down when I was seventeen years old and think, was that really me, did I really write that? Of course, there is a lot of teenage angst on repeat, but there are also moments of clarity and beauty. I often go back and steal bits and pieces from myself to use in the stuff I’m writing now.

Overall, has attending SWF helped you in pursuing the “path to published," and if so, how?

Russell Mattinson and his black lab, Henry.

Definitely. If I hadn’t attended SWF, I wouldn’t have this amazing network of people that I have now. Both the festival itself and the wonderful people I’ve met as a result have inspired me to continue writing and to keep plugging away at my manuscript.

If you plan on attending SWF22, (and we certainly hope you do) is there anything specific that you hope to learn more about this time around?

For me, it’s always interesting to hear about different authors and their journeys – how they plan and structure their work, how they balance writing time and other parts of their lives, how they keep going and don’t give up. So I guess it would be fun to hear from real life writers talking about their craft and challenges.

We asked Russell if he would submit a short writing sample, so we can get a small taste of his writing style, and below is his brief explanation of the theme, followed by an excerpt from a longer piece.

These are the first two paragraphs of a short story I wrote last year called Polaroid '89. I chose this piece because it explores the same ideas as the novel I'm working on - namely, the hopes, dreams and fears of suburban small-town kids.

I kept two Polaroids of Christopher, buried at the bottom of my memory box. I wanted mostly to forget him, but my selfish vanity still needed those tattered fragments of his American beauty.

There’s a picture of me too, but I’m scared to look at it. A version of myself that I can’t seem to erase. Seventeen years old, standing beside his shiny black car in Shepherd’s Bush in 1989. Wearing his gold watch and his Texan grandfather’s ring. Looking away from the camera - ashamed of my ugliness and my clumsiness and my freckles and my body. Ashamed of the story waiting to happen.