Nathan Curnow received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Community Development from Victoria University in 1998, a Certificate IV in Social Science (Communication) from Swinburne University of Technology in 2001, a Graduate Diploma in Creative Arts in 2002 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Creative Writing in 2004 from the School of Creative Arts (University of Melbourne). His poetry and short fiction have appeared in publications such as Heat, Overland, Space: New Writing, Allnighter (Cardigan Press), Going Down Swinging and Blue Dog. In 2003, his poem Pica and the Motions was included in The Paper, an independent media project. In 2004 he won the University of Melbourne Postgraduate Association (UMPA) prize for poetry for his poem Not Dead Just Gone to Battle. In the same year he received third prize for his short story Blessings of Ghost and Light in the Southern Grampians Writing Competition. In 2005, his poem Atlas was published in Artlook (online) and he won a mentorship program with the Australian Society of Authors.
Curnow's work has been aired on ABC Radio National, notably Manifesto, in 2004 and on Radio 3RRR: If You Want to Flee the City in 2003, This is a Student Poem and The Kebab Truck in 2005 and Trouble at the Super Hero Convention in 2006. His radio interviews include Aural Text, RRR, Breakfast with Dominic Brine, ABC Ballarat and Sunday Night Safran.