Thomas Knauer lives in a small village in Upstate New York with his wife, two children, and a dragon. He spends much of his time exploring the minutiae of letters and numbers, words and sentences. He loves words in just about any form, from letterpress printing to multimedia development. So, it is no surprise that his work has taken a turn down the path of text-based quilts. He began his professional life teaching design at Drake University before turning to quilting. He has designed fabrics for several leading manufacturers, and his work has been exhibited in quilt shows and museums across the country, including the International Quilt Museum, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and the Quilt Festival in Houston. His work typically focuses on issues of social justice and violence; his most recent body of work deals with the recent police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Knauer has authored several books prior to Quilt Out Loud and plans to keep writing as long as people will let him.