Hera Lindsay Bird was born and raised in Thames, New Zealand. She attended Victoria University of Wellington and then received her Master's degree in poetry from its International Institute of Modern Letters. Her first collection of poetry, the self-titled Hera Lindsay Bird, was published by Victoria University Press in 2016 and Penguin UK in 2017 and won the Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.