James L. Sutter is a co-creator of the Pathfinder and Starfinder Roleplaying Games. From 2004 to 2017, he worked for Paizo Publishing, starting out as an editor on Dungeon Magazine, going on to do foundational work for Pathfinder, and eventually becoming the Creative Director in charge of launching Starfinder, as well as the Executive Editor of the Pathfinder Tales novel line for Paizo and Tor, before leaving to write full-time.

James is also the author of the queer young adult romance novels Darkhearts and The Ghost of Us, as well as the fantasy novels Death's Heretic—a finalist for the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel—and The Redemption Engine, which won the 2015 Scribe Award for Best Original Speculative Novel. His short stories have appeared in such venues as Nightmare, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Escape Pod, and the #1 Amazon best-seller Machine of Death. In addition, he's written comic books, essays in venues like Clarkesworld and Lightspeed: Queers Destroy Science Fiction, a wealth of tabletop gaming material for brands like Dungeons & Dragons, and video games.

When not writing, James has performed with musical acts ranging from metalcore to musical theater. He lives in Seattle.

James is represented by Josh Adams of Adams Literary.

To learn more, visit the interview archive or check him out on Bluesky and Instagram.

Photo by Giao Nguyen. Click here for a high-resolution version.