Timothy Zahn was born in Chicago in 1951 and grew up in the western suburb of Lombard. He attended Michigan State University, earning a B.S. degree in physics in 1973, and moved on to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. He earned a M.S. degree there, also in physics, in 1975, and continued work toward a doctorate. Also in 1975, he began a new hobby: writing science fiction.

At first a strictly spare-time avocation, over the next three years he gradually gave more time to it until he sold his first story in December 1978 (Ernie, Analog, September 1979). In 1980 he left grad school and began writing full time.

Since then he has published fifty-five novels, over a hundred short stories and novelettes, and five collections of short fiction. Best known for his twelve Star Wars novels, he is also the author of the Quadrail series, the Cobra series, the Conquerors Trilogy, and the young-adult Dragonback series.

His latest books are Star Wars: Thrawn: Alliances; Pawn: Sibyl’s War Book 1; Cobra Traitor, the third of the Cobra Rebellion trilogy; and A Call to Vengeance, the third of the Manticore Ascendant series with David Weber and Thomas Pope.

Upcoming books include Knight: Sibyl’s War Book 2; and A Call to Insurrection.