Nancy Pfeiffer Towner, artist and writer, was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1924. She studied art at the University of Iowa under Philip Guston from 1943 to 1944 and then proceeded to the Art Institute of Chicago for study until 1947. From 1955 to 1956, Towner acted as exhibit director for the Evanston Community Center Gallery, and from 1963 to 1965 she used a scholarship to study under Paul Weigardt at the Evanston Art Center.

Towner acted as exhibit director of the Evanston Art Center in 1968 and participated in a number of art exhibitions throughout the 1970s. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1975 and served on the board of directors for the West Hubbard Gallery in Chicago from 1979 to 1980. In 1982, Nancy Pfeiffer Towner and her husband Robert Towner moved to Iowa City. She studied poetry under Daryl Hine and continued to exhibit her works in Iowa City and at the E.V. Gallery and Circleworks Vision Gallery in New York City.

Her drawings and poetry have been published in poetry journals including Iowa Woman, Diacritics, Lyrical Iowa, Midwest Poetry, 100 Words, Rhino, Standing Alone, and The Literary Review. Her poetry has received many prizes, including the Illinois Arts Council's Prize for Poetry (1981). Towner was active in the National League of American Pen Women, Iowa City Branch, and received numerous awards at the organization's national competitions in sculpture, drawing, and painting. She presented lectures on her art at Arts Iowa City and participated in the Iowa Women Writers program. Nancy Pfeieffer Towner passed away on January 2, 2003 in Iowa City.