Night Wishes

As a New Hampshire and Vermont radio broadcaster, Matt Forrest Esenwine spent a good part of his time writing and producing commercials and comedy bits. He also wrote poetry, which was published in various national journals and anthologies including the Donald Hall tribute, “Except for Love” (Encircle, 2019). Little did Matt know all this short-form writing would lead to his debut picture book, “Flashlight Night” (Astra Young Readers, 2017), which received numerous positive reviews including a Kirkus star and was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the Best Books for Kids 2017. Encyclopedia Brittanica also featured it in their list of“11 Children’s Books That Inspire Imagination!” Other childern’s books fllowed, including “Don’t Ask a Dinosaur” (POW! Kids, 2018), co-authored with Deborah Bruss, “Once Upon Another Time” (Beaming Books, 2021), co-authored with Charles Ghigna, and “I Am Today” (POW! Kids Books, 2022), recipient of the 2023 NH State Literary Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature. Meanwhile, Matt’s children’s poetry can be found in numerous anthologies like “The National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry” (National Geographic Children’s Books, 2015), “Construction People” (Wordsong, 2019) and ‘Highlights for Children’ magazine. Feel free to connect with Matt at www.MattForrest.com.

nuts and bolts: from southern new jersey, graduated from risd with a bfa in illustration in 1996, lives and works in providence, ri, hates sopping wet paper. it makes her gag. odds and sods: first dream job was to be a bumper car operator (it could still happen), loves breakfast, loves breakfast for dinner more, loves biking, loves walking more, loves a lot of music but could easily listen to belle and sebastian or the wedding present all day long. non stop.