Born in Columbus, Ohio, but raised in Greenville, South Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York, Woodson weaves her experiences into her realistic fiction. Her work spans various audiences, including picture books like Coming on Home (which received a Caldecott Honor), several middle grade and young adult texts, and the adult novels Another Brooklyn and Red at the Bone. The author of more than 30 books, Woodson is best known for her memoir in verse, Brown Girl Dreaming, which charts her life in the segregated south and in Brooklyn and won the National Book Award. In addition to spending time on the New York Times Bestseller lists, her books have won numerous awards, including the Newbery Honor and the Hans Christian Andersen Medal. In 2016, Woodson was granted an honorary degree from Adelphi University. Additionally, she served as the Poetry Foundation’s Young People’s Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017 and the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature from 2018 to 2019.

Named a MacArthur Fellow in 2020, Woodson currently resides in Brooklyn, where many of her stories, including Locomotion, take place. In Brown Girl Dreaming, Woodson notes a conflict between her parents about living in the South versus up North.