Timothy Zahn (born September 1, 1951) is an American writer of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

. He is known best for his prolific collection of ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

books A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical ar ...

, chiefly the ''Thrawn'' series, and has published several other series of

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

and

novels of his own original creation, in addition to many works of short fiction.

Early life

Zahn grew up in

Lombard, Illinois Lombard is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States, and a suburb of Chicago. The population was 43,165 at the 2010 census. The United States Census Bureau estimated the population in 2019 to be 44,303. History Originally part of ...

and attended

Glenbard East High School Glenbard East High School, or GBE, is a public four-year high school located in Lombard, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, in the United States. It is part of Glenbard Township High School District 87. East, on average, draws around 2,500 ...

in Lombard. He then went on to

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

, before working towards a doctorate in physics at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

Career

Zahn's novella ''Cascade Point'' won the 1984

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

. He is the author of the ''Blackcollar'' trilogy and the '' Cobra'' series (nine novels so far), fourteen ''Star Wars'' expanded universe novels, including thirteen novels featuring

Grand Admiral Thrawn Grand Admiral Thrawn (full name: Mitth'raw'nuruodo) is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He is notable for appearing as the eponymous character in the ''Thrawn'' trilogy of novels (1991–1993) by Timothy Zahn. Thrawn is an ...

: the ''Thrawn'' trilogy, the '' Hand of Thrawn'' duology, ''

Outbound Flight Grand Admiral Thrawn (full name: Mitth'raw'nuruodo) is a fictional character in the '' Star Wars'' franchise. He is notable for appearing as the eponymous character in the ''Thrawn'' trilogy of novels (1991–1993) by Timothy Zahn. Thrawn is an ...

'', '' Choices of One'', ''

Thrawn Grand Admiral Thrawn (full name: Mitth'raw'nuruodo) is a fictional character in the '' Star Wars'' franchise. He is notable for appearing as the eponymous character in the ''Thrawn'' trilogy of novels (1991–1993) by Timothy Zahn. Thrawn is an ...

'', '' Thrawn: Alliances'', '' Thrawn: Treason,'' and the ''

Thrawn Ascendancy ''Thrawn Ascendancy'', also known as ''Thrawn: The Ascendancy Trilogy'' or simply ''The Ascendancy Trilogy,'' is a trilogy series of ''Star Wars'' novels released in the years 2020 and 2021 consisting of the books ''Chaos Rising'', ''Greater Goo ...

'' trilogy. Lucasfilm at times used some of the more detailed '' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game'' supplements from

West End Games West End Games (WEG) was a company that made Board game, board, Role-playing game, role-playing, and wargaming, war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York City, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Its product line ...

as references, and West End sent boxes of their sourcebooks to Zahn when he started work on a new ''Star Wars'' novel trilogy. At the time, Zahn was writing ''

Heir to the Empire The ''Thrawn'' trilogy, also known as the ''Heir to the Empire'' trilogy, is a trilogy of novels set in the ''Star Wars'' universe, written by Timothy Zahn between 1991 and 1993. The first book marked the end of what ''Star Wars'' fandom calls "T ...

'' (1991), the first book in what became known as the ''Thrawn'' trilogy, and West End in turn released sourcebooks from 1992–1994 based Zahn's three novels. The ''Thrawn'' trilogy marked a revival in the fortunes of the ''Star Wars'' franchise, bringing it widespread attention for the first time in years; all three ''Thrawn'' trilogy novels made the ''New York Times'' Best Seller List, and set the stage and tone for most of the franchise's expanded universe content. Zahn also wrote the young adult Dragonback series and the popular ''Conquerors'' trilogy.

Bibliography

References

External links

Timothy Zahn's page
at

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese scien ...

Timothy Zahn's page
at

Open Road Media Open Road Integrated Media or ORIM (stylized as OR/M and also called Open Road) is a digital media company in New York City that was created by Jane Friedman and Jeffrey Sharp in 2009 with a focus on publishing ebook editions of older works of li ...

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Timothy Zahn interview with RoqooDepot.com for Mara Month
May 7, 2012
Timothy Zahn interview with RoqooDepot.com at Star Wars Celebration VI
August 25, 2012
Timothy Zahn 'Scoundrels' interview with RoqooDepot.com
December 31, 2012
Timothy Zahn
at ComicBookDb.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Zahn, Timothy 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American science fiction writers Hugo Award-winning writers 1951 births Living people Michigan State University alumni Grainger College of Engineering alumni American male short story writers American comics writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers People from Bandon, Oregon