Melissa Scott is a science fiction writer. She was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1961. Scott studied history at Harvard University before earning her Ph. D. in comparative history from Brandeis University. Scott's first science fiction book, The Game Beyond, was published in 1984. In 1986, she won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Scott received the Lambda Literary Award for Gay/Lesbian Science Fiction in both 1995 and 1996 for the books Trouble and Her Friends and Shadow Man. She is a co-founder of WaveLengths, a journal of gay/lesbian/bisexual-interest science fiction and fantasy.
