Larry Correia is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling novelist, creator of the Monster Hunter International series, podcast host, writing educator, former firearms instructor and gun-store owner, and longtime competitive shooter. His career joins commercial genre fiction with practical experience in firearms, small-business management, accounting, and the culture surrounding armed citizens and shooting sports.
Professional Background
Before writing full time, Correia worked as an accountant, military-contract accountant, and small-business accountant and manager. He earned an accounting degree from Utah State University and later became a part owner of FBMG, a Utah firearms business. At FBMG he combined business management with firearms sales, instruction, and contact with a broad range of shooters and professional users.
Correia was a Utah concealed-firearm instructor and taught large numbers of students while working in the firearms business. He also trained extensively and competed for years, particularly in IDPA and 3-gun. These experiences provided a practical foundation for his later fiction: familiarity with weapon handling, equipment selection, competition, concealed carry, gun-store operations, training culture, and the ways knowledgeable gun owners speak and solve problems.
Writing Career
Correia wrote Monster Hunter International while still working in accounting and the firearms industry. After conventional submissions did not produce a publishing agreement, he initially released the novel himself and promoted it through the online firearms community. Its sales and readership attracted the attention of Baen Books, which published a new edition and established Correia as a full-time professional novelist.
The resulting Monster Hunter International series follows a private organization whose members confront supernatural threats. The books combine urban fantasy, action, horror, and Correia’s practical knowledge of firearms and armed professionals. That technical grounding became a recognizable part of his work without displacing the storytelling, characters, and deliberately outsized adventure at the center of the series.
His other major bodies of work include:
- The Grimnoir Chronicles, an alternate-history fantasy series beginning with Hard Magic;
- The Saga of the Forgotten Warrior, an epic-fantasy series beginning with Son of the Black Sword;
- the Dead Six military thrillers, written with Mike Kupari;
- Gun Runner, written with John D. Brown;
- the Monster Hunter Memoirs novels, including collaborations with John Ringo;
- the Target Rich Environment collections, along with numerous other short stories and edited anthologies.
Correia has published more than two dozen novels and dozens of shorter works. His fiction has appeared in multiple languages, and his honors include Dragon Awards and Audie Awards. His bibliography spans urban fantasy, epic fantasy, alternate history, military thrillers, and science fiction.
Areas of Expertise
Correia’s areas of experience include commercial fiction, independent and traditional publishing, long-form series development, collaborative writing, editing, audience development, firearms in fiction, competitive shooting, firearms instruction, accounting, and small-business management. He is especially useful in discussions of technical authenticity: understanding when detail strengthens a story, when it interrupts one, and how practical experience can make fictional characters and decisions more credible.
Writing Education and WriterDojo
Correia co-hosts WriterDojo with author Steve Diamond. The program focuses on the practical work of becoming and remaining a professional writer, including craft, productivity, publishing, business decisions, reader expectations, and the difference between advice that sounds attractive and methods that reliably produce work readers will buy.
This educational role extends the same approach visible in Correia’s career: treating creative work as both an art and a profession. His experience includes self-publishing, working with an established publisher, maintaining long-running series, collaborating with other writers, editing anthologies, and developing a direct relationship with readers.
Primary & Secondary Involvement
Correia appeared on P&S ModCast 424 — Author Larry Correia with David Simerly, Warren Wilson, and host Matt Landfair. The long-form discussion covered his creative process, research, professional experience, firearms knowledge, technical authenticity, audience expectations, persistence, and the balance between realism and entertainment.
Within the Extended Primary & Secondary Network, Correia provides a perspective uncommon in a community centered largely on practitioners and instructors: he demonstrates how firsthand technical knowledge can be translated into accessible popular fiction without turning a story into a technical manual. His work also shows how specialist communities can inform a creative career, supply knowledgeable readers, and help an independent project develop into a durable professional body of work.
Current Work
Correia continues to write and publish fiction through Baen Books, maintain Monster Hunter Nation, and co-host WriterDojo. His ongoing work includes established series, collaborations, shorter fiction, anthologies, and education for writers seeking a practical understanding of storytelling and the publishing business.
Sources
Baen Books — Larry Correia author page
Monster Hunter Nation — About Larry Correia
WriterDojo — hosts and professional biography
Primary & Secondary — P&S ModCast 424: Author Larry Correia
Profile last reviewed: September 9, 2026. Biographical details and professional affiliations were checked against the sources listed above.