Cecilia Tan ("ctan") is a trailblazer in erotic science fiction and fantasy. In 2014, RT Magazine recognized that fact, awarding her both the Career Achievement Award and their Pioneer Award. She founded Circlet Press in 1992 and has been widely published in SF/F, literary, and queer fiction circles ever since, including three of the Big Five publishers and numerous medium to nano-sized presses. Her urban fantasy series, The Vanished Chronicles, is still forthcoming from Tor. Her "day job" is Publications Director at SABR (Society for American Baseball Research), for whom she edits the semi-annual Baseball Research Journal and heads their book publishing program.

Tan received her master's degree in professional writing and publishing from Emerson College in 1994. Her numerous works of longer fiction include the Struck by Lightning trilogy (whose first book, Slow Surrender, won the RT Reviewers Choice Award and the Georgia RWA's Maggie Award for Excellence), the Magic University series, and the Prince's Boy duology, as well as standalone novels Mind Games (Ravenous Romance, 2009) and The Velderet (Circlet Press, 2015). Her erotic SF/F short fiction collections include Black Feathers (Perennial/HarperCollins, 1998), White Flames (Running Press, 2008), and Telepaths Don't Need Safewords (Circlet Press, 2015). Her short fiction has appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies, including Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, Absolute Magnitude, and Best American Erotica (1996, 2006), Best Lesbian Erotica (several), Nerve.com, Best Women's Erotica (2003, 2011), Best Gay Short Stories 2012.

Tan's essays have been included in Uncanny Magazine, Sojourner, A Woman Like That (Perennial/HarperCollins, 2000), Lambda Literary Report, the Queers Destroy Science Fiction! special issue of Lightspeed Magazine, and many other publications. Tan was inducted into the GLBT Writers Hall of Fame at Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in 2010.