Biography

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, moving 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/Tor.

James is the author of the forthcoming young adult romance novel Darkhearts (June 6, 2023 from Wednesday Books), 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, and video games—most recently the Starfinder audio game for Amazon's Alexa, featuring Nathan Fillion and Laura Bailey.

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 Twitter and Instagram.

Photo by Elise Koncsek. Click here for a high-resolution uncropped version.