Walter Jon Williams (1953-) was born in Duluth, MN, but has resided most of his life in New Mexico, where he received his B.A. in 1975 from the University of New Mexico. Williams' earliest novels were non-SF historical works , written under the name 'Jon Williams': nautical adventures (1981-1984) set on board American ships as they battle the British in the Age of Sail, and based on games he designed for Fantasy Games Unlimited. His career in science fiction began with the 1984 novel "Ambassador of Progress"; his second SF novel, "Knight Moves" (1985) was nominated for the 1986 Philip K. Dick Award.

From 1986-1989 Williams produced the 'Hardwired' series of novels, a well-received group of novels in the emerging cyberpunk genre; Williams' interest in cyberpunk continued with the 1989 novel "Angel Station". Over the course of his career, Williams has written novels and short stories in a number of other genres, such as science fantasy (the 'Metropolitan' series, 1995-1997), SF noir (the 'Dagmar Shaw' series, 2009-2014), comedy (the 'Drake Majistral' series, 1987-1996), and far future military space opera ('Dread Empire's Fall', 2002-ongoing). He is also a noted fantasy writer, having written the 'Quilifer' series (2017-2019).

Williams also plays in other people's universes from time to time. He has written two works in the 'Star Wars' Expanded Universe series: "Destiny's Way" and "Ylesia" (both 2002). He has also written for George R.R. Martin's 'Wild Cards' shared universe series that explores the real-life societal effects over decades of a virus that struck Earth in the 1940s and infected many people with superpowers and others with horrible deformities.

He has been nominated for numerous awards in the course of his career, including Hugo Awards for the 1987 novelette "Dinosaurs", the 1988 novella "Surfacing", the 1993 novella "Wall, Stone, Craft" (also nominated for a Nebula Award), the 1998 novel "City on Fire" (also nominated for the Nebula), and the 2003 novella "The Green Leopard Plague"; and Nebula Awards for his 1986 novella "Witness", the 1991 novella "Prayers on the Wind", the 1995 novel "Metropolitan", the 1997 novelette "Lethe", and the 1999 novella "Argonautica". He won the 2001 Nebula Award for Best Novelette, for "Daddy's World" and the 2005 Nebula for Best Novella for "The Green Leopard Plague". He was a finalist for the 1998 Theodore Sturgeon Award for Best Short Science Fiction for "Lethe", and for the 2000 Sturgeon Award for Best Short Science Fiction for "Daddy's World".