Nancy E. Turner was born in Dallas, Texas, and holds a degree in fine arts from the University of Arizona with a triple major in creative writing, music, and studio art. She is best known for her Sarah Agnes Prine series, which draws on her own family’s journals and memoirs from the Arizona frontier.
Her debut novel, These Is My Words, tells the story of Sarah Prine growing up in the harsh Arizona Territories between 1881 and 1901. The book won the Arizona Author Award and was a finalist for the 1999 Willa Cather Award. Turner followed it with Sarah’s Quilt, set in 1906 during a devastating drought, and The Star Garden, which continues Sarah’s story against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution.