Norman Richard Spinrad (born September 15, 1940) is an American science fiction author, essayist, and critic. His fiction has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award and two Nebula Awards. Born in New York City, Spinrad is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science. In 1957 he entered City College of New York and graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science degree as a pre-law major. He has lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and New York. He married fellow novelist N. Lee Wood in 1990; they divorced in 2005. They had no children. Spinrad served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) from 1980 to 1982 and again from 2001 to 2002. He has also worked as a radio phone show host, a vocal artist, a literary agent, and President of World SF

An alternate world novel in which Hitler leaves Germany after World War I, the Nazis never take power, Hitler emigrates to the United States, where he becomes an SF writer and writes LORD OF THE SWASTIKA, the novel within the novel, his fantasy of Nazi Germany in a world where the real thing never was. With an academic afterward explainingv why such a thing as Nazi Germany could never have happen except in an heroic fantasy novel.

Published in a dozen languages, winner of the Prix Apollo, short listed for the Nationa Book Award, banned in Germany, then exonerated after 8 years of court action.