Sarah J. Maas was born on March 5, 1986 in New York City, New York.

In 2008, Maas graduated magna cum laude from Hamilton College in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, where she majored in creative writing and minored in religious studies.

In 2008, Maas started sending the story to agents before signing with Tamar Rydzinski of The Laura Dial Literary Agency in 2009. Throne of Glass was purchased in March 2010 by Bloomsbury, who later purchased two additional books in the series. The series is available in 15 countries and 35 languages. While several prequel novellas set two years before the first novel have also been published they have now been condensed into one book, The Assassin’s Blade. Maas is set to write seven books in the series. The second book of the series, Crown of Midnight, was named a New York Times young adult best-seller. In September 2015 it was announced that the Mark Gordon Company had acquired television rights for Throne of Glass. The final book in the series, Kingdom of Ash, was released on October 23, 2018.

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Maas’ second series, is a loose retelling of the traditional Beauty and the Beast. The first book of the trilogy was written in 2009 but wasn’t published until 2015. The fourth book in the series, A Court of Silver Flames, is set to be published on February 16, 2021. The series was on its way to becoming a movie.

Maas is married and lives in Pennsylvania. Her son, Taran, was born in June 2018.

On May 16, 2018, Maas announced her third series overall and first adult fantasy series, Crescent City, the first book which is titled House of Earth and Blood and was released by Bloomsbury on March 3, 2020. According to her Goodreads page, there is going to be three books in the series.