Nancy Willard was born June 26, 1936 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She attended the University of Michigan, graduating with a B.A. in 1958, and received a Ph.D. from Stanford University. Willard began drawing and writing as a child, and throughout her career has worked as a teacher, writer and illustrator. She writes fiction for children and poetry for both children and adults, and has also illustrated works by other authors, and her books have been praised by critics for their "observations, imagination and expression," and a "magic view of life." Some of Willard's earliest books, the "Anatole" stories illuminate the author's belief that life incorporates both imagination and metaphor, and her keen interest in the struggle between good and evil, and what drives the forces of life and death. Critics cite these stories for the author's ability to transcend the gap between fantasy and reality and make both her plots and beliefs understandable. Willard won the Newbery Award for A Visit to William Blake's Inn, in 1982. Like many of her it expresses her views on life and uses "nonsense" poems to get across her "moral" messages. Her works are often full of allusions, "labyrinthine" plotting, and mix the ordinary and extraordinary, but she never loses her sense of perspective or audience.

Much of Willard's art is presently archived with the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor.