Mark James is a novelist, geographer, and U.S. Navy veteran.

His critically acclaimed novel Friendship Games reimagines the USS Maine incident that helped spark the Spanish–American War of 1898. This time, it is a U.S. aircraft carrier sinking in the Persian Gulf and plunging America into crisis. The novel earned a Kirkus Star, was selected as one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of the Year, and received a Bronze Medal from the Military Writers Society of America.

Friendship Games launched the Wartmann Series, which continues in The Compass Room. Together, the novels explore the political, military, and human consequences of a changing world order. James's debut novel, Alter Road—designated A Wartmann Universe Story—is a standalone account of unrest in Detroit after decades of deindustrialization, economic decline, and corporate indifference.

James served in the U.S. Navy during the final years of the Cold War and its immediate aftermath, with assignments in the Philippines, Japan, Guam, the Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii. He later earned a PhD in Geography from the University of Cincinnati and has taught political, economic, and urban geography for more than twenty-five years.

He lives on Maryland's Eastern Shore and is currently dreaming up the next novel in the Wartmann Series.

Connect with Mark on Substack!