Joanne Schwartz was born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Her first picture book, Our Corner Grocery Store, illustrated by Laura Beingessner, was nominated for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. Her other books include City Alphabet and City Numbers, with photos by Matt Beam, and two Inuit folktales with Cape Dorset elder Qaunaq Mikkigak — The Legend of the Fog, illustrated by Danny Christopher, and Grandmother Ptarmigan, illustrated by Qin Leng. Pinny in Summer and Pinny in Fall, illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant. Her most recent book Town is by the Sea, illustrated by Sydney Smith, is about a boy growing up in a mining town in Cape Breton.

Joanne has been a children’s librarian for more than thirty years. She lives in Toronto.