Books by Matthew Oliphant
Published in 2023
This book is actually a manifesto—but not the kind that can get you thrown into jail, ideally, for our sake. The main premise is: Dogs are great! Reminding each other of that on a daily basis spreads cheeriness. And cheeriness is needed.
A memoir. Ish. This story takes place over the course of a few months between 1991 and 2051—everything in it happened, none of it is real.
In fact, this book may not even exist.
Published in 2022
Radha's dad Rion picks them up from school unexpectedly. Rion tells Radha that he got a present for them and thought it might be fun to walk home together and along the way Radha can guess what the present is. Radha has some pretty wild guesses! A steam train that delivers fried chicken? A barracuda with a briefcase? An albino moose with a cello? None of Radha's guesses are correct—not exactly anyway.
This book is sort of a “collected works” edition. Some of the poems I’ve worked hard on and some of them were written in less than a minute. I think I tend to like those the best. There are one or two that I set out to do something very specific and I think I accomplished that.
Could they all be better? Of course. Getting through the final 10% took another month. Are any of them great? One is.
AAQ — Poetry Works, Mostly
(Actually Asked Questions)
What do you mean by “Good enough for you”?
You’re awesome. So, even if this book is only “pretty good” it’s still good enough for you. Because you’re awesome.
Mostly?
I love to play with multiple layers of meaning within a small amount of words. This book is poetry, mostly. This book is mostly poetry that works. This book represents all of my works of poetry, mostly. Also, I like silly things.
AAQ — What DId You get Me?
(Actually Asked Questions)
What age range is this appropriate for?
I feel like the range is 2-12. It depends on where your kid is at developmentally. Are they able to sit an enjoy being read to? Do they like to explore books on their own (not by eating the book)? I still love some of the picture books we got when our kid was little and I’m well outside the 2-12 age range. I know my kid would have liked this at age 2. And, when I showed it to them, at almost 22, they liked it, too.
Who is the book for?
Anyone who needs to be reminded that their imagination can have an artistic outlet—and that the outlet path doesn’t matter. Painting, singing, writing … the point is to make space for people (especially kids) to explore. There’s no wrong answers when it comes to art.