Deborah Donnelly is a sea captain's daughter who grew up in Panama, Cape Cod, and points in between. She has a bachelors degree in English literature from Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, and a masters degree in library science from the University of Washington, Seattle.

Deborah has been a university librarian, a corporate speechwriter, a nanny, and a science fiction writer. Her short stories have appeared in Asimov's, Universe, and Fantasy & Science Fiction, as well as being translated into Italian, Portuguese, Polish and Lithuanian.

A long-time resident of Seattle, Deborah now lives in Boise, Idaho with her writer husband, Steven Bryan Bieler, and their two Welsh corgis. As a bloomingly healthy breast cancer survivor, she loves to roam the trails of the Cascade and Sawtooth Mountains, and to throw fabulous parties.