Barry N. Malzberg (born July 24, 1939) was born and raised in New York City, NY, and graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University (where he also held a Schubert Foundation Playwriting Fellowship from 1964-1965) in 1960. Before embarking on his literary career he worked for the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene, the NYC Department of Welfare, and the Scott Meredith Literary Agency (the last from 1965 intermittently through the next few decades). He also worked as the managing editor of Escapade in 1968, and as an editor for both Amazing Stories and Fantastic Stories from 1968-1969. in 1969 he was editor of the Science Writers of America Bulletin.

Malzberg's first work of published science fiction was the story "The Sense of the Fire", which was published in January 1967 by Escapade. This novelette launched Malzberg's career, which grew over the subsequent decades to encompass over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories (some written under the name K. M. O'Donnell), as well as numerous edited anthologies. His most famous novel was Beyond Apollo (1972), the story of astronaut Harry Evans, the lone survivor of a failed expedition to Venus. Evans is revealed as a so-called unreliable narrator, and in fact, may actually have been driven insane by his travails. The novel won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1973 and was both praised and blasted by critics upon its publication. Like much of Malzberg's work, the novel is caustic, pessimistic, and intensely conscious of the dehumanization caused by advancing technology and oppressive bureaucracies.

Malzberg could be highly critical in his approach to science fiction, ready to point out what he saw as problems with the U.S. space program, space colonization in general, and the subculture of science fiction itself. Critical reactions to his work encouraged Malzberg to announce his retirement from science fiction writing in 1976, although since then he has continued to write in the field.