As a radio broadcaster, Matt spent a good deal of 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 he know all this short-form writing would lead to his debut picture book, the Kirkus-starred "Flashlight Night" (Astra Young Readers, 2017), which was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the Best Books for Kids 2017 and even showed up on Encyclopedia Brittanica’s list of “11 Children’s Books That Inspire Imagination.”

Matt now has more than a dozen books to his credit including "I Am Today" (POW! Kids Books, 2022), which received the 2023 NH State Literary Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature, and "Once Upon Another Time" (Beaming Books, 2021), co-authored with Charles Ghigna (aka, Father Goose®), a book that ALA’s Booklist called “a necessary addition to picture book collections.”

Meanwhile, Matt's children’s poetry can be found in anthologies like "The National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry" and "The Poetry of US," (National Geographic Children’s Books, 2015 & 2018), "Construction People" and "School People" (Wordsong, 2020/2018) and 'Highlights for Children' magazine.

Matt may be an adult, but he refuses to be a grown-up. Feel free to connect with him at https://www.MattForrest.com!