The Picture Book Buzz - Interview w/ Matt Forrest Esenwine, Charles Ghigna, Allan Wolf, and Joyce Sidman
- Maria Marshall
- Mar 31
- 18 min read
Having been included in many poetry anthologies, including a number compiled and edited by the great Lee Bennett Hopkins, Matt Forrest Esenwine decided to create his own poetry anthology - "A kaleidoscopic collection celebrating rainbows in nature."
He merged his own poems with poems from sixteen other amazing poets - Nikki Grimes, Renee M. LaTulippe, Joyce Sidman, Irene Latham, David L. Harrison, Heidi E. Y. Stemple & Jane Yolen, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Alma Flor Ada & F. Isabel Campoy, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Marilyn Singer, Charles Waters, Laura Purdie Salas, Charles Ghigna, Lee Wardlaw, Janet Wong, Allan Wolf, and Georgia Heard.
I am excited to share with you my chat with Matt and three of the poets about their inspiration, insights, and fun in creating their poems within this stunningly illustrated and engaging STEM picture book anthology, A Universe of Rainbows: Multicolored Poems for a Multicolored World, releasing April 1st.
Welcome everyone!
Matt let’s start with you. Why did you want to create an anthology of poems? And how did this collection of poems get started? Why Rainbows?
Matt Forrest Esenwine – It was toward the end of Tara Lazar’s Storystorm 2019 (where we spend a month coming up with 31 picture book ideas) that I was kicking around some possible concepts for a poetry collection. For some reason, rainbows popped into my head, so I wrote that down as a potential manuscript.
I don’t just mean normal rainbows, by the way – I was thinking of things like rainbow eucalyptus trees (for which I wrote a poem in “The National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry”), the rainbowfish, or even the Rainbow Nebula in the constellation Orion. So, I began my research and discovered cool places like Caño Cristales, aka, the Rainbow River, in Columbia and phenomena like moonbows, about which Joyce wrote a poem.
It also occurred to me that since rainbows are symbols of inclusion, hope, and pride, perhaps rather than a collection of my own poems, I could develop this into my very first poetry anthology. I’ve had poems published in numerous anthologies over the years (the first was when I was a junior in high school!), so why not try creating my own?
So, after a phone conversation with the late, great Lee Bennett Hopkins, to whom the book is dedicated, I decided to go for it – and here we are!
It's so cool that you got the chance to talk with Lee about the creating this anthology. So, for each of you, what about this anthology or working with Matt appealed to you?
Charles Ghigna - Everything! I’ve been a fan of Matt’s poetry for many years. It’s been fun following his progress as a poet to see all the new surprises he’s been creating over the years for his readers, young and old! I first had the pleasure of working with Matt on our book Once Upon Another Time. It was great fun collaborating on that project with him. It’s been doubly rewarding for me to now see him try out his poetic wings in creating poetry anthologies for children. I loved hearing him share his idea for this new rainbow anthology and was eager to write my “Night Gem” poem for him.
Allan Wolf – The most appealing thing was that Matt reached out and asked if I’d participate. Ha. It’s nice to be included. And Matt seems savvy to the community of authors committed to writing poetry for kids. We are a relatively tight-knit group. I think I got to know Matt when Lee Bennett Hopkins was putting together his Construction People anthology. Matt contributed a poem to that, aptly named Construction Project Manager. He was coming out of that LBH school of anthology curation, which was very hands-on and intentional. At the time, I didn’t know Matt well, but I definitely understood where he was coming from.
Joyce Sidman – I liked his theme and his approach. The idea of rainbows can get a bit abstract for kids, so I loved the idea of tying them to natural phenomena, like the moonbow in my poem “Along the Zambezi.”
I am glad you, and all the other poets, worked with Matt to create this wonderful STEM poetry anthology. What initially drew each of you to writing poetry? Despite being hard, at times, to write and sell what continues to drive you to write poetry.
Matt Forrest Esenwine - Tractor Dance, illustrated by Jen Taylor (2024) - When I was 6 or 7, my parents gave me a copy of The Secret Place & Other Poems by the incredible Dorothy Aldis, and I LOVED that book. Absolutely my favorite book from childhood! Of course, I didn’t realize it at the time, but that instilled in me a love of words and wordplay, imagery, imagination, rhythm, and rhyme – and even now I can see how her writing style influences my own writing.
Ultimately, I appreciate the brevity of poetry, the fact that one can say so much in such a small space. Power, emotion, beauty – it can all be packed into just a few short lines, and when the right words all come together (sometimes serendipitously), it’s an almost magical feeling.
Charles Ghigna - The Father Goose Treasury of Poetry: 101 Favorite Poems for Children, illustrated by Sara Brezzi (2023) – I first fell in love with poetry in elementary school. I had a teacher who used to start each day by reading a poem. Later in the year, she invited each of us to find poems on our own and to recite them in front of the class. In high school, I had an English teacher who used to give us free writing time on Fridays. He’d play music and just let us sit there quietly looking out the window letting our thoughts and dreams run free. Then he invited us to try and capture some of those thoughts in words.
I always found a poem to be just the right little package of words I needed to capture my thoughts and feelings and to help me see what I was thinking. How lucky I’ve been to be able to provide for my family by doing what I love. That’s about as close to making magic as one can imagine. [😊]
Allan Wolf - How to Tantrum Like a Champion, illustrated by Keisha Morris (2024) - As early as 4 years old, I remember being keenly aware of the feel of gravity and how it held me to the earth. I recall being entertained by the rhythm of walking. The sound and feel of each footstep. Add to that my “odd” habit of repeating phrases or single words over and over until they lost their meaning. That sense of rhythm, my short attention span, and the comfort I found in reading and repetition got me started, I guess. Now at age 62, I’m still driven toward poetry by all the same inclinations and quirks. I’m lucky that I’ve found people to publish my work. At heart I am a poet, but I still branch out to picture books, prose, essays—you name it. I’ve got a prose novel coming out and even a graphic novel. It’s all fed by the same urge to create that I felt starting when I was four.
Joyce Sidman - We Are Branches, illustrated by Beth Krommes (2023) – Early on, I was drawn to the sound and feel of words—and the way my heart responded to them. I loved all kinds of writing, but as I grew older, poetry drew me in. Its brief, vivid structure seemed to match my emotional make up. I love its metaphor, rhythm and sensory details, and its way of allowing us to see the world in a new way.
Like Charles, I had a teacher who allowed us free creative writing time in 6th grade. What a gift! Later, other teachers encouraged my poetry writing. Teachers are my heroes. [😊!]
You are all indeed fortunate to be able to do what you love and we are lucky that you do. Matt, were there any challenges or adventures which you encountered in creating this anthology - A Universe of Rainbows: Multicolored Poems for a Multicolored World? What was the most fun part?
Matt Forrest Esenwine - Honestly, the biggest challenge was simply selling the proposal, ha! Being unagented, I have to submit everything I write directly to publishers who accept unsolicited submissions. I pitched it to three or four editors who said it sounded interesting but they weren’t interested. Fortunately, Kathleen Merz at Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, who had previously worked with our friend Lee on several of his anthologies like Night Wishes and Bless Our Pets, loved the concept, and we signed the contract just a month or two after Covid struck! A little shining spot of brightness in the middle of a dark, uncertain time – much like a rainbow!
The fun part? Pretty much everything else about the project! I loved seeing all the poems the contributors began sending in. Some were perfect right out of the gate, others required some back-and-forth revisions, but they all were beautiful, solid works of poetic art and I’m so grateful to all the contributors for agreeing to participate.
Sounds like you have gotten bit by the anthology bug. Wonder if you have ideas for more in the future. Matt, how long did it take to discover all the different types of rainbows? Did you write each of the sidebars that accompany the poems?
Matt Forrest Esenwine - It’s hard to say how long it took because the research was done over the course of a couple of years! Most of the subjects were nailed down within the first few weeks of the process, but every now and then I’d come across a new phenomenon or new creature or location and had to decide if I was going to add it or not.
As for the sidebars, I had notes about each subject, but I didn’t write any of the sidebars until the poems were finalized. You see, I didn’t want poems that were didactic or fact-heavy; I wanted poetry, for poetry’s sake. But I also knew we were going to need sidebars. If the poems were beautiful but the sidebars were too technical, I worried the book would feel disjointed; conversely, if the poems were too detail-oriented, they would risk sounding like poetic sidebars.
So by waiting for the poems to be completed, then writing the sidebars, the poetry and science are much more cohesive. And speaking of cohesion, I can’t thank illustrator Jamey Christoph enough for pulling everything together with his incredible artwork!
Jamey's illustrations are phenomenal! And the interplay you accomplished between the facts and the poetry. You beautifully wove an extra layer and science with the poems and illustrations. For each of your specific topics, what was the spark or inspiration for your poem(s)?
Text © Matt Forrest Esenwine, 2025. Image © Jamey Christoph, 2025.
Matt Forrest Esenwine – This may seem like a boring answer, but fact of the matter is my inspiration was borne from whatever subjects needed poems! One poem, “Sun Dogs,” about the phenomenon known as parhelia, I wrote several years ago but never knew what to do with it, ha – but my other poems were literally written because someone had to write them.
The reason I have five poems included in this anthology is not because I wanted to steal the spotlight, but because I wanted the contributors to receive as much compensation as possible. The way anthologies work, the publisher will set aside a specific amount of money to pay contributors for permissions of their poems, and I can divide that amount any way I want. With 22 subjects, I’d be looking at dividing this lump sum 22 ways; however, by writing five of the poems myself, I was therefore able to pay each contributor a little more than what they would have received, otherwise. Hopefully that makes sense!
Text © Matt Forrest Esenwine and Charles Ghigna, 2025. Image © Jamey Christoph, 2025.
Charles Ghigna - Night Gem - Matt was the “spark of inspiration” for this poem. ;-) He provided me with a few choices, and the peacock spider jumped out at me.
Text © Matt Forrest Esenwine and Allan Wolf, 2025. Image © Jamey Christoph, 2025.
Allan Wolf – What We Left in Rainbow Cave - Matt gave me a very specific subject, the “rainbow caves” in the Patagonia region of South America, Las Cavernas de Marmol (The Marble Caves). So in part, the poem was born from the two pages of notes I took during my research. The researching stage is what I call “Collecting Sap.” The drafting stage is what I call “Boiling the Sap.” The final version that ends up in the book is “The Syrup.”
Text & image © Allan Wolf, 2025.
I’ve included a couple photos of the Sap stages of this poem that I started in July 2020. But the actual tone and atmosphere of the poem was strongly influenced by the fact that I had just returned from Mexico where I had spent time exploring the underground water caves in Yucatán called cenotes. That was so life changing that I felt as if I had left a piece of my soul behind there. And I wanted to bring that same vibe to my rainbow cave poem. Hence the lyrical iambic tetrameter and the concept of how we leave behind a part of ourselves when a place has stolen our hearts.
Text © Matt Forrest Esenwine and Joyce Sidman, 2025. Image © Jamey Christoph, 2025.
Joyce Sidman - Along the Zambezi – I’m a big fan of hidden, ephemeral things, so I was immediately enthralled with moonbows—which can only occur during a full moon under certain conditions. The colors are so faint they can’t be seen with the naked eye: they can only be captured in long-exposure photographs. They are the secret, mysterious cousins of rainbows.
I chose Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River as a setting for my poem, because these magnificent falls are famous for their moonbows, and I wanted to draw the reader’s imagination to somewhere strikingly distant.
WOW! Thank you all for your candor and openness. What a fun analogy for writing. And thank you, Alan, for the images. It is amazing how unique areas and creatures can "steal" parts of our hearts. How long did it take to complete and/or polish your poem? Were there any specific challenges you encountered with the poem?
Matt Forrest Esenwine – This is hard to say, as the anthology itself took five years from signing the contract to being published – and four of those years were spent researching, writing, collecting, and collating. I will say the quickest poem I wrote was “Jewel of the Pasture,” about the rainbow scarab, which I completed in just a few hours. When I saw a picture of the beetle, I was struck by how shiny they were, like a brand-new sports car – and the poem nearly wrote itself! [😊]
Charles Ghigna - Night Gem - Writing a poem about the beautiful peacock spider was sheer joy. The initial inspiration came rather quickly. After spending the evening reading about this little gem, I woke the next morning and began doing some automatic writing, letting the poem take me where it wanted to go. It was an honor to write a letter/poem (apostrophe) to this magnificent little creature who carries a rainbow on its back.
Allan Wolf – What We Left in Rainbow Cave - This poem took a couple weeks as I recall. At first, I wrote my way toward what I needed to write, and I listened to what the poem had to say along the way. I followed its lead. The idea of the poet as boat-guide and the reader as passenger emerged from that early writing. The consistent four-foot lines, the end rhyme, the internal rhyme, and the meter’s iambic heartbeat—all of that came straight from the emotion I felt as I recalled my own personal recent cave experience. Once that strict metrical pattern established itself, the challenge was to sustain it without it taking on a robotic, sing-song feel. I spent a LOT of time tweaking the sound and the rhythmic feel.
Joyce Sidman - Along the Zambezi – It took me a couple of weeks to write and polish this poem. I started with research, making sure I fully understood the phenomenon of moonbows. As I began writing, I quickly decided to use one of my favorite poetic forms, the “pantoum”, in which alternating rhyming lines are repeated in each stanza. Juggling those repeated lines in a new context in each stanza is a bit fiddly, but it’s the kind of task I love.
Thank you all for sharing the specific poem type that you used. Is there anything special you want your readers to know about your poem(s)? What was the most rewarding part of creating this poem(s)?
Matt Forrest Esenwine – I think there are two hugely rewarding parts of writing any of these poems: one is learning something new about the subject you didn’t know before, and the other is when you finish the poem, sit back, and read it – and realize it came out as good or better than you’d expected! I know that for my poem about the peacock mantis shrimp, I was in awe of both its beauty and its power, and the fact that those two qualities are not mutually exclusive. As the father of several girls, I felt I owed it to them and all the others out there to show that there is more to all of us than just one or two adjectives. [Yes!]
Charles Ghigna –Night Gem - Matt provided us all with the opportunity to explore and learn about the colorful aspects of nature that we might not have encountered before. What makes this opportunity even more rewarding is in knowing our poems might also provide young readers with new appreciation and insight to the many colorful rainbow creatures and places found around the world. [😊]
Allan Wolf – What We Left in Rainbow Cave - The process of writing What We Left in Rainbow Cave, was a perfect example of how writing a poem can be an act of faith. It helps to have faith in the process of writing, especially when you are relying upon that process to show you where you need to go. It takes faith to take a back seat as you allow the writing to lead you wherever it wants to go. [Totally!]
Joyce Sidman - Along the Zambezi – The most rewarding part is imagining the wonder and awe that young readers will feel as they encounter all these different types of rainbows. The more we learn about the natural world, the more amazing it becomes—and the more mindful we will be about our own impact. [😊]
I think you will all succeed beyond your wildest hopes and dreams for this book. It is amazing and inspirational. Any advice or resources you’d suggest for authors or kids who want to write poetry?
Matt Forrest Esenwine – I would suggest doing what I did – begin reading poetry, all kinds, and study it. Read it as a reader first and simply enjoy it; then read it again as a writer and try to see what the poet was doing. Is there a rhyme scheme? Is there a rhythm? If not, is it free verse? Why do you suppose the poet used free verse instead of a formal rhyme scheme? Does the poet repeat letters or sounds, do they use unusual metaphors or imagery? Was there something surprising about the poem or the way it approached its subject?
Really pick it apart and see what makes it tick. But only after you’ve read the poem for the sheer enjoyment of it – one cannot write poetry without first appreciating it. Books like Paul Janeczko’s A Kick in the Head, A Poke in the Eye, and How to Write Poetry are great resources to read and study different types of poetry, as is Myra Cohn Livingston’ Poem-Making: Ways to Begin Writing Poetry.
Charles Ghigna - I always like to encourage kids to keep a journal. Find yourself a nice little notebook and write in it every day. Start by writing just a few sentences each night before you go to sleep. Write as though you’re whispering a secret story to a best friend. Don’t worry about spelling or punctuation or grammar. Just write. Write every night for two weeks — then stop — if you can. If you can't, you're a writer! And no one no matter how hard they may try will ever be able to stop you from following your writing dreams. Enjoy those dreams. Follow them. Make new ones. Share them. Write of your passions, your loves, your fears, your joys. Make up new stories and poems whenever and wherever you can. Find your writer's voice by listening deep inside. It's that little voice that says in a low, soft whisper, "Listen to this..."
Allan Wolf – There is no substitute for reading and immersing yourself in poetry. The more you read (and recite poetry aloud) the more you develop your ear. And the more you spark your own imagination. Pay attention to who is writing the words that most inspire you. Also note which publishers are putting their faith in poetry. Don’t just pay attention; play attention. Summon joy in every step of the process. Gather lots of sap. But only keep the sweet stuff.
As for resources: Find a copy of my book, Immersed In Verse: An Informative, Slightly Irreverent & Totally Tremendous Guide to Living the Poets Life (Lark Books). Check out the recent Clara’s Kooky Compendium of ThimbleThoughts and WonderFuzz by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong (Pomelo Books). And for you grown-ups who need a kick in the britches to finish your manuscript, read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (Black Irish Entertainment).
Joyce Sidman - I always tell my students that the poems are already inside them—because they’ve all noticed, experienced, thought, and felt things that no one else has. The trick is to find the right words to express those moments. Be a collector of words, images, feelings. Take time to really explore the thoughts inside you. Jot them down! Read, read, read for inspiration. Make connections between your outer and inner world. Then find a trusted person with whom to share your writing. We all need an audience who will help us improve and celebrate our work.
Oh my! Thank you all so much for the encouragement and the resources! Are there any upcoming projects that you are working on now that you can share a tidbit with us?
Matt Forrest Esenwine - I have two more anthologies on the way, and one of them is also from Eerdmans. We’re likely not going to see them until at least 2028, alas, but that’s what it’s like in children’s publishing! Once I’m able to share more news, trust me, you’ll hear about it, ha!
Charles Ghigna - Thanks for asking about our upcoming projects. 2024 was a good year here in the Treehouse. I have six new books under contract on the way for 2025-2026. Three for kids. Three for adults.
Southern Bred: A Memoir of Gothic Poems for adults (Central Ave/Simon & Schuster)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s First Poems with art by Eric Carle (Random House)
Kids Love Coins: An Introduction to Coin Collecting illustrated by Jacqueline East (Whitman)
Puns Not Guns: Humorous Light Verse for adults (Livingston Press)
Sweet Dreams: Moon Poems for Bedtime illustrated by Jacqueline East (Schiffer Kids)
The Lost Book of Life: New & Selected Poems for adults (University of Alabama Press)
Allan Wolf – I have three books coming out this year! One: A poetry collection titled The Gift of the Broken Teacup: Poems of Mindfulness, Meditation, and Me, (brilliantly illustrated by Jade Orlando). This is my most personal collection yet, giving me a platform to share my own journey to develop a sense of self-worth. Two: My first graphic novel is on the way, The Vanishing of Lake Peigneur (illustrated by Jose Pimienta), a creative non-fiction telling of a little-known oil drilling disaster in 1980. Three: My first all-prose historical fiction novel, Junius Leak and the Spiraling Vortex of Doom, using that same lake disaster as a backdrop, staring a 12-year-old who is obsessed with waterbodies, but deathly frightened of water.
Joyce Sidman - I have a poetry book coming out with Clarion in early September entitled, Dear Acorn, Love Oak. It’s a collection of letter poems in pairs, from something small to something big, and then vice versa. For instance, a droplet writes to a cloud, and the cloud writes back. It’s all about bigness and smallness and how we fit together. I’m excited to say that it is illustrated by the amazing Melissa Sweet!
These all sound amazing and intriguing! I can't wait to hear about the projects and see these books on the shelves! Best of luck to you all with your projects. Last question, what animal or natural feature (place) would you want to learn more about? Why?
Matt Forrest Esenwine - There are plenty of fascinating things here on Earth, to be sure, but I would love to learn more about all the planets we’re discovering beyond our solar system! Astronomers have already discovered more than 5000 exoplanets (planets not part of our solar system) and now believe that nearly half of all the stars in the sky could potentially have at least one planet orbiting them. We can determine to a small degree their chemical composition, but how cool would it be to actually see and investigate them??
Charles Ghigna - I learn something new every day from our beloved Golden Retriever, Daisy. The older I get, the more I realize just very much more our pets instinctively know about life than we do. Their senses are much keener and they just seem to be plugged into a higher level of love and universal understanding than we humans. Daisy teaches me more about loyalty and unconditional love every single day.
Allan Wolf – I’d like to learn more about the history of Southwest Virginia where I was raised, because I’m working on a memoir about growing up in and around Blacksburg, VA. I want to know how my timeline fits into the area’s greater historical timeline.
Joyce Sidman - I am working on a manuscript about whales at the moment, so I am interested in all things whale. Because they are so big, they’re hard to study, so our understanding changes all the time. Many of them are threatened by increasing noise levels, pollution, and the ever-growing number of fishing nets and ropes along their migration paths. I am learning so much and hope to share it soon with young readers.
Thank you all so much for sharing with us your poems and experiences working on this amazing poetry anthology.
Be sure to come back Friday for the Perfect Picture Book #PPBF review of Universe of Rainbows: Multicolored Poems for a Multicolored World.
To learn more about these wonderfully creative individuals, or to contact them:
Matt Forrest Esenwine – a poet, voice actor, commercial producer, and author of 12 children’s books, including Tractor Dance, illustrated by Jen Taylor (2024) -
Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/MattForrestVW
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattforrestvw/
Charles Ghigna - author of more than 5,000 poems and 125 award-winning books, including The Father Goose Treasury of Poetry: 101 Favorite Poems for Children, illustrated by Sara Brezzi (2023) –
Website: https://www.charlesghigna.com/
Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/FatherGooze
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charlesghigna
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlesghigna/
Allan Wolf – author of picture books, poetry, and young adult novels, including How to Tantrum Like a Champion, illustrated by Keisha Morris (2024) -
Website: http://www.allanwolf.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allanwolfpoet/
Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/allanwolf100?lang=en
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allanwolf100/
Joyce Sidman - author of many award-winning children’s poetry books, including We Are Branches, illustrated by Beth Krommes (2023) –
Website: https://www.joycesidman.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joycesidman/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joyce.sidman/
