Manelle Oliphant: Mormon Illustrator
Manelle Oliphant is a children’s book illustrator and costume illustrator. As a child, she loved drawing girls in pretty dresses and continued that love by working as a seamstress and creating fantasy illustrations. She illustrated a board book series for Peachtree Publishers (In the Garden, In the Woods, At the Beach) and illustrates an early reader chapter book series titled Just in Time; published titles include Just in Time: The Rescue Begins in Delaware, Just in Time: Sweet Secrets in Pennsylvania, Just in Time: The Wizard of Menlo Park, New Jersey, and Just in Time: A Dangerous Day in Georgia. Stand-alone books include Ruby and the Skateboard (with her husband, Jeremy D. Miller), In the Wind, The Princess and the Pee, Grace Anne Learns to Tell the Truth, and Hansel and Gretel. She also wrote and illustrated Accidentally the Greatest Wizard in the World. She has illustrated for McGraw-Hill, Blooming Tree Press, The Empress Theatre, and the Friend Magazine.
Oliphant earned her bachelor’s degree in illustration from Brigham Young University-Idaho. She worked for a year illustrating for an educational publisher. She also briefly taught art at an elementary school.
She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She and her husband live in Salt Lake City.