Timothy Zahn

Timothy Zahn (born September 1, 1951) is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy.

He is known best for his prolific collection of Star Wars books, chiefly the Thrawn series, and has published several other series of sci-fi and fantasy novels of his own original creation, in addition to many works of short fiction.

Zahn grew up in Lombard, Illinois, and attended Glenbard East High School in Lombard.

He then went on to Michigan State University, before working towards a doctorate in physics at the University of Illinois.

Zahn's novella Cascade Point won the 1984 Hugo Award.

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: the Thrawn trilogy, the Hand of Thrawn duology, Outbound Flight, Choices of One, Thrawn, Thrawn: Alliances, Thrawn: Treason, and the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy.

Lucasfilm at times used some of the more detailed Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game supplements from West End Games 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 (1991), the first book in what became known as the Thrawn trilogy, and West End in turn released sourcebooks from 1992–1994 based on 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.

In 2014 Zahn collaborated with David Weber on the Manticore Ascendant series set within the Honorverse.

In 2023, Dave Filoni confirmed during the Star Wars Celebration Europe that Zahn served as a creative consultant for the upcoming Disney+ miniseries Ahsoka in order to assist the creative team in writing Thrawn correctly, as Filoni felt that only Zahn could advise them with the "right" way to adapt Thrawn as the character's creator.