Joyce Maxner is a native of the Massachusetts seacoast north of Boston, and has been a resident of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania over the last 30 years. Her educational and professional experience is wide-ranging and impressive. She has studied at Centenary Junior College, Harvard University School of Extension Studies, College of the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, and she has a Masters Degree in Counseling and Human Relations from Villanova University.

She has had careers in advertising, in both radio and newspaper journalism, and in juvenile justice and family therapy.

She is now semi-retired in Pennsylvania, has a daughter in Bethesda,Md., and a son and granddaughter of 16 living in Mt.City,Tennessee.

In her early teens, she began composing short poems including haiku, and she continued writing haiku and other poetry forms over the years. She has published two well known children's books in narrative verse, Nicholas Cricket, with illustrations by William Joyce (Harper Collins, 1989) and Lady Bugatti, illustrations by Kevin Hawkes (Lothrop Lee & Shepard, 1991).

She is a participant in various Internet haiku groups, notably WHChaikumultimedia, where she has been serving as 'haiku coach' and has earned the deep respect of all the list's members for her insightful critiques.