Joyce Mary Horner was born on July 13, 1903, in Yorkshire, England. She received a B.A. in 1925 from St. Hilda's College, Oxford, a diploma in Education in 1926 and an M.A. in 1928 from Smith College. She worked at various schools and colleges before coming to Mount Holyoke in 1944 as an assistant professor in the English Department. She was chair of the English Department from 1947 through 1950, and became a full professor in 1966. She retired in 1969, but continued publishing novels and poems. Joyce M. Horner died on March 24, 1980, in Northampton, Massachusetts.