Melissa Scott has been a science fiction fan since the age of 11, and a science fiction writer since 1984. She's from Little Rock, Arkansas, and studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, where she earned her PhD. in the comparative history program with a dissertation titled "The Victory of the Ancients: Tactics, Technology, and the Use of Classical Precedent."

In 1986, she won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.