American author of dozens of licensed Star Trek novels and reference titles, who began as a winner of the Strange New Worlds contest and became a mainstay of the Pocket Books line.
Dayton Ward broke into Star Trek publishing through the Strange New Worlds short story competition, placing stories in its first three anthologies. His first novel, In the Name of Honor, followed in 2002.
Much of his work was written with Kevin Dilmore, including Starfleet Corps of Engineers stories, the Next Generation pair A Time to Sow and A Time to Harvest, and several volumes of the Vanguard series. On his own he wrote From History's Shadow, Armageddon's Arrow, Headlong Flight, Available Light, the Discovery novel Drastic Measures and Moments Asunder, the opening book of the 2021 Coda trilogy.
He has also written tie-in reference books in an in-universe voice, among them a travel guide to Vulcan and the Kirk Fu Manual.