Eloise Greenfield was born in Parmele, North Carolina, in 1929 and grew up in Washington, DC, where she still lives. She graduated from Cardozo High School and attended Miner Teachers College for two-and-a-half years. Later, as a young wife and mother, while working as a clerk-typist at the US Patent Office, she decided to become a writer and began to study books on writing.
In 1962, Ms. Greenfield had a poem, her first acceptance, published in The Hartford Times. She now has published 47 children’s books. Her mission is to write nourishing books for children, while filling her life with the joy of creating with words.
Ms. Greenfield has received many awards, including the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement; the Coretta Scott King Award for Africa Dream; the Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Award for Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir, written with her mother, Lessie Jones Little; the Hurston/Wright Foundation’s North Star Award; and the Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children from the National Council of Teachers of English.
Now a grandmother and great-grandmother, Ms. Greenfield continues to write. She can be found at twitter.com/elgreenfield and at balkinbuddies.com.