Nancy Byrd Turner, born in Boydton, Virginia, was the eldest child of Rev. Byrd Thornton and Nancy Turner.

In 1898 she graduated from Hannah More Academy in Maryland and began work as a teacher. During this period her work appeared in several national magazines including the Saturday Evening Post and Scribner's.

In 1917, she moved to Boston to join the editorial staff of The Youth's Companion. By 1922 she was an editor for The Atlantic, The Independent, and Houghton Mifflin. She joined the MacDowell art colony in 1925 and remained there until 1944.

Her first book of poetry, A Riband on My Rein, was published in 1929. Over the course of her career she published 15 books, ranging from adult poetry to children's literature and lyrics. Her work appeared in England and in the United States in such magazines as Good Housekeeping, Harper's Magazine, Ladies' Home Journal, and the New Yorker.

She retired to Ashland, Virginia to become a lecturer and freelance writer.

Poetry

• A Riband on My Rein, 1929
• ISBN 9781409711025 reprint 2008