Elaine Cunningham

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-06

American novelist Elaine Cunningham was born August 12, 1957, in New York City. She holds a degree in music education with a minor in history and worked as a full-time arts administrator alongside her writing career, which began in 1987 with her first professional publication appearing in 1991. She is renowned for her fantasy and science fiction contributions to the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms series, particularly her elf-centered novels such as Elfshadow, Daughter of the Drow, Tangled Webs, and Windwalker, as well as the Starlight & Shadows trilogy, and for co-authoring City of Splendors: A Novel of Waterdeep with Ed Greenwood. She is also the author of the New York Times bestselling Star Wars novel Dark Journey (2003), part of the New Jedi Order series, and of the Changeling Detective mystery series. Her novel Shadows in the Starlight was named to Kirkus Reviews' 2006 Ten Best SciFi Novels list. She resides in coastal Rhode Island.