Janelle Washington is a paper-cut artist, illustrator, and recipient of the Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator for illustrating Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement by Angela Joy. Janelle recently moved back to her hometown, Richmond, Virginia, where she spends time with her parents, sitting around their kitchen table. When she isn't at her childhood home, she enjoys being outside in the sun or inside, cutting her paper-cut designs. The Heart of Our Home is her authorial debut. She is a member of the Guild of American Papercutters.