Richard A. Knaak (born 28 May 1961) is the author of Dragonlance novels, Dragonrealm, six novels for Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo series, and nine works in the Warcraft universe. He has also written five non-series fantasy books.
Knaak attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studying rhetoric, and earned a bachelor's degree.
After reading Andre Norton's Storm over Warlock, he eventually sold his first short story in 1986, and it was published in 1987. He has listed several of his influences, and even a few of his favorite fellow authors, those being Edgar Allan Poe, Robert E. Howard, Glen Cook, L. Sprague de Camp, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Harry Turtledove, Jennifer Roberson, Laurell K. Hamilton, Harry Harrison, and Robert Sawyer.