Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Bear studied English and anthropology at the University of Connecticut but did not graduate. She worked as a technical writer, stable hand, reporter and held various office jobs. She sold a few stories in the 1990s and began writing seriously in 2001.[2]
Bear's first novel, Hammered, was published in January 2005 and was followed by Scardown in July and Worldwired in November of the same year. The trilogy features Canadian Master Warrant Officer Jenny Casey, who is also the main character in the short story "Gone to Flowers". Hammered won the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2006.
The Chains That You Refuse, a collection of her short fiction, was published May 2006 by Night Shade Books. Blood and Iron, the first book in the fantasy series entitled The Promethean Age, debuted June 27, 2006. She is also a coauthor of the ongoing Shadow Unit website/pseudo-TV series.
In 2008, she donated her archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.[3]
The opening quote in Criminal Minds episode "Lauren" (6.18) was a direct quote of the second and third lines of Bear's book Seven for a Secret: "The secret to lying is to believe with all your heart. That goes for lying to yourself even more than lying to another."
Wax (2005) (Interzone #201, Nov/Dec 2005 & reprinted in Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2006 edition, June 2006)
Two Dreams on Trains (2005) (Strange Horizons webzine, Jan. 2005; reprinted in Year's Best Science Fiction: 23rd Annual Collection (July 2006) & reprinted in Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology. Spanish-language version, Dos Sueños con Trenes, appeared in Cuasar #42, Marzo 2006)
Follow Me Light (2005) (Sci Fiction webzine, Jan. 2005, reprinted in Best New Paranormal Romance (Nov. 2006) & Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (Sept. 2006)
Botticelli (2005) (The Agony Column, Feb. 2005)
And the Deep Blue Sea (2005) (Sci Fiction webzine, May 2005 & anthology Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams)
Long Cold Day (2005) (Sci Fiction webzine, Sept. 2005)
On Safari in R'lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera (2020)
A Blessing of Unicorns (2020) (Appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Sept.-Oct. 2021)
The Red Mother (2021)
The Part You Throw Away (2022)
Twin Strangers (2022) (Appeared in anthology Tasting Light: Ten Science Fiction Stories to Rewire Your Perceptions edited by A. R. Capetta & Wade Roush)
Here Instead of There (2023) (Appeared in anthology Communications Breakdown: SF Stories About the Future of Connection edited by Jonathan Strahan. Read aloud on podcast Escape Pod, part I Oct. 2, 2025[11] and part II on Oct. 9, 2025.)
Poetry
"Li Bai Drowns While Embracing the Moon" in Not One of Us, Issue 42.
"Seven Steeds" in Lone Star Stories, Issue 29, Oct. 2008.
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