It's Not A Book Until It's A Book with Matt Forrest Esenwine

It's Not A Book Until It's A Book with Matt Forrest Esenwine

From You May Contribute A Verse by Josh Monken and Brenna Jeanneret

December 30, 2025 · 1h 8m · Episode 170

About this episode

Matt Forrest Esenwine returns to discuss his new anthology and share book reviews.

Today's second-timer is our last-timer of 2025! Matt Forrest Esenwine graces us once again with his delightful, radio-ready voice for a soothing exit to the year. In addition to Matt's twelve other books (some of which you can hear about in our first conversation from 2021), this year Matt released his anthology A Universe of Rainbows: Multicolored Poems for a Multicolored World. We don't get to talk a ton about anthologies, so this was a delight! _________ This episode’s book reviews: JOVITA WORE PANTS by Aida Salazar, illustrated by Molly Mendoza THIS BOOK IS PERFECT by Ron Keres, illustrated by Arthur Lin MY DAD IS THE BEST by Fran Pintadera, illustrated by Joan Turu The artwork for You May Contribute a Verse features our quokka mascot, Versey, and was generously created by the great Maddie Frost! Find her on IG @hellomaddiefrost or on her website Maddie-Frost.com Our theme music is So Happy by Scott Holmes. You can find more of his music at scottholmesmusic.com Love the podcast and wanna support more episodes like this? Find Community Shoutouts, Merch and our Patreon here!! Find us on Bluesky @joshmonkwords, @brennajeanneret, and @jonseym0ur and as always, let us know what…

People in this episode

Hosts: Josh Monken, Brenna Jeanneret

Guest: Matt Forrest Esenwine

Topics covered

  • children's literature
  • poetry
  • book reviews
  • anthologies
  • creative writing

Keywords

  • Matt Forrest Esenwine
  • A Universe of Rainbows
  • children's books
  • poetry anthology
  • book reviews

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: You May Contribute A Verse, Maddie Frost, Scott Holmes

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