Matthew Burgess is an Associate Professor at Brooklyn College. He is the author of eight children's books: Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings (Enchanted Lion Books), The Unbudgeable Curmudgeon (Knopf), Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring (ELB), The Bear and The Moon (Chronicle), Bird Boy (Knopf), Make Meatballs Sing: The Life & Art of Corita Kent (ELB), The Red Tin Box (Chronicle), and Sylvester’s Letter (ELB). Matthew has edited an anthology of visual art and writing titled Dream Closet: Meditations on Childhood Space (Secretary Press), as well as a collection of essays titled Spellbound: The Art of Teaching Poetry (TWC). More books are forthcoming, including: As Edward Imagined: A Story of Edward Gorey (Knopf, 2024), Fireworks (Harper Collins, 2024), and Words With Wings and Magic Things (Tundra, 2025). A poet-in-residence in New York City public schools since 2001, Matthew serves as a contributing editor of Teachers & Writers Magazine.