Matthew Burgess

MATTHEW BURGESS is a poet, educator and the author of many picture books, including Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings, Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring and The Bear and the Moon. His books have received starred reviews, a Eureka! Gold Award for Excellence in Nonfiction and been featured on best-of lists from the New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist and Amazon. Matthew is a professor of literature and creative writing at Brooklyn College, and for over twenty years, he has led poetry programs in New York City public schools, sharing his love of words with thousands of kids. Always on the lookout for magic, Matthew lives in Brooklyn and Berlin.

DOUG SALATI is the author and illustrator of Hot Dog, winner of the 2023 Caldecott Medal and the 2023 Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Award, and named one of the best books of the year by Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews and the New York Public Library. The first book he illustrated was In a Small Kingdom by Tomie dePaola, and the second, Lawrence in the Fall by Matthew Farina, was a 2020 Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Award honoree. A 2015 Sendak Fellow, Doug lives and works in New York City.