Martha Wells, novelist ans short story writer, was born on September 1,1964 in Fort Worth, Texas, and graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.A. in Anthropology. She currently resides in College Station, Texas.

Her first novel, The Element of Fire, was published by Tor in hardcover in July 1993 and was a finalist for the 1993 Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Award and a runner-up for the 1994 Crawford Award. (The French edition, Le feu primordial, was a 2003 Imaginales Award nominee. Her second novel for Tor, City of Bones, was a 1995 hardcover and June 1996 paperback release. Both novels were on the Locus recommended reading lists. Her third novel The Death of the Necromancer (Avon Eos) was a 1998 Nebula Award Nominee and the French edition was a 2002 Imaginales Award nominee. Wheel of the Infinite (HarperCollins Eos) followed in 2000. In 2003 Wells published The Wizard Hunters (HarperCollins Eos/May 2003), the first book in a fantasy trilogy taking place in the world of Ile-Rien (from The Element of Fire and The Death of the Necromancer). It was followed by two sequels - The Ships of Air (2004) and The Gate of Gods (2005). Wells' books have been translated into numerous languages, including French, German, Russian, Italian, Polish, and Dutch.

Wells has also written an number of other books, including a fantasy series for young adults that includes the novels Emilie and the Hollow World (2013) and Emilie and the Sky World (2014); two tie-in novels set in the universe of television's Stargate Atlantis - Reliquary (2006), and Entanglement (2007); and the novel Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge (2013). This last is set in the Star Wars: Legends universe and is notable for placing Princess Leia Organa front and center as the main heroine.

Among Wells' most notable works are the five novels and numerous stories comprising the fantasy series The Books of the Raksura. The series, which began with the 2011 novel The Cloud Roads, takes place in the lush and varied Three Worlds, and is centered around Moon, a member of the shapeshifting Raksura species. Popular and critically-acclaimed, the series was nominated in 2018 for the Hugo Award for Best Series. The series ended in 2017 with the novel The Harbors of the Sun.

In 2017, Wells embarked on a new project, The Murderbot Diaries, an science fiction series about a self-aware cyborg who must reckon with its newfound autonomy as well as its ongoing frustration with the mass of humanity among which it lives and works. The first novella in the series, All Systems Red was nominated for the 2018 Philip K. Dick Award and the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella. It won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novella, making Wells the first graduate of TAMU to win a Nebula Award. All Systems Red has also won the 2018 Locus Award for Best Novella and a 2018 ALA/YALSA Alex Award. The second book in the series, Artificial Condition, was released in May 2018 and won the 2019 Hugo award for Best Novella (another first for Wells, as the first Aggie to win a Hugo Award as an author). Subsequent entries in the series include Rogue Protocol (2018), Exit Strategy (2018), Network Effect (2020, the first novel in the series and winner of the 2020 Locus Award for Best SF Novel, the 2021 Nebula award for Best Novel, and the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Novel), and most recently, the novella Fugitive Telemetry (2021). The series has been a critical and popular hit, winning the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2021 and the first book is being produced by Apple TV+ as a television series set for broadcast in late 2024. The latest installment of the series, the novel System Collapse, was released in November 2023.

Wells' new epic fantasy novel, Witch King, was published by Tordotcom in May 2023. It has been nominated for the 2023 Nebula Award for Best Novel.