Gwendolyn Faith Hunter was born Gwendolyn Prater in the bayou country of Louisiana, but as a young girl moved to South Carolina, where she has spent the majority of her life. She enjoyed writing from an early age, and began serious writing in the mid-1980s. Hunter graduated from York Technical College (Rock Hill, SC) with a degree in allied health technology and worked for many years as a lab technician at York General Hospital and at Chester County (SC) Hospital.

A chance meeting at the Chester County Hospital in 1983 introduced Hunter to police officer Gary Leveille; both were interested in becoming writers, and the two collaborated (under the pseudonym 'Gary Hunter') on two crime thrillers featuring Washington DC cop Garrick Travis: Death Warrant (1990) and Death Sentence (1992).

Following the publication of these works, Hunter struck out on her own as a solo writer. As Gwen Hunter she produced her first solo novel, Betrayal, in 1994. The book was the first in a 3-book series of Gothic dramas about the DeLande family of southern Louisiana (followed by False Truths [1995] and Law of the Wild ([1997]). Another series of thrillers, set in South Carolina with Dr. Rhea Lynch as the main character, followed between 2001- 2003: Delayed Diagnosis, Prescribed Danger, and Deadly Remedy. In addition to these, Hunter has written several stand-alone novels, including Ashes to Ashes (1996), Shadow Valley (2005), Bloodstone (2006), Blackwater Secrets (2006), Sleep Softly (2008), and Rapid Descent(2009). Her most recent novel as Gwen Hunter was the 2012 work His Blood Like Tears*, a story of Jesus Christ seen through the eyes of Mary Magdalene.

Under the name of Faith Hunter, Hunter began a new career as a novelist of urban fantasy starting in 2006, with the publication of Bloodring, the first in her Rogue Mage trilogy.  The series, which also includes the novels Seraphs (2007) and Host (2007), is set in a post-apocalyptic America ravaged by battles between angel-like "seraphs" and demons. The series' main character is Thorn St. Croix, a "rogue mage" who has escaped captivity and now lives among the general population, hiding from those who fear her powers.

In 2009, Hunter published Skinwalker, the first in a new urban fantasy series set in New Orleans about Jane Yellowrock, a shapeshifter (hence, a 'skinwalker') of Cherokee Indian descent who hunts vampires. The series, which to date consists of 15 novels (the latest, Final Heir, in 2022) and a number of short stories, has been well received by critics and readers alike. A spin-off series, Soulwood, began publication in 2016 with the novel Blood of the Earth- the main protagonist is Nell Ingram, a practitioner of magic who draws her powers from the very Earth itself and who is employed as a member of a US government unit tasked with policing paranormal activity. The series consists of five books to date, the latest being 2020's Spells for the Dead.

Hunter has been critically acclaimed for her literary work. The novel Sleep Softly received the 2008 Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Contemporary Mystery Novel. Shadow Valley was a finalist for the 2006 Mary Higgins Clark Award, and Blood of the Earth was nominated for the 2017 Dragon Award for Best Fantasy Novel.

Hunter is married to Rod Hunter, and the two reside in Rock Hill, South Carolina.