Orson Scott Card is an American novelist, critic, public speaker, essayist, and columnist. He is known best for his science fiction works. As of 2023, he is the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013.

Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003). His fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. He has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.

Card was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. He is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young. While a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Between 1978 and 1979, he had 27 short stories published and won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and began writing novels in science fiction, fantasy, nonfiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979.

Card continues to write prolifically and has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories. He teaches English at Southern Virginia University, has written two books on creative writing, and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps" and remains a practicing member of the LDS Church.