Philip Athans was raised in Chicago. He graduated from film school in 1985 and started small circulation literary magazine called Alternative Fiction & Poetry.

In 1997 became Managing Editor for Wizards of the Coast Book Publishing, where he's spent most of his time as the Forgotten Realms novel line editor. There he has edited dozens of anthologies and novels, and continues to write his own. His most recent works are the three novels in the Watercourse Trilogy.