Dean Wesley Smith (born November 10, 1950) is an American writer of science fiction, mystery, and fantasy.

Smith has also written novels for various media franchises including Star Trek, Spider-Man, X-Men, Men in Black, and many other gaming, television, and movie properties.

Smith attributes his prolific output to a self-developed writing method he calls "cycling", where he does minor edits and revisions as he goes along with a manuscript.

Smith's stories can also be found in almost 20 different anthologies, such as Journeys to the Twilight Zone (1992), The Book of Kings (1995), and Past Lives, Present Tense.

In 1992, Smith was the founding publisher of Tomorrow Speculative Fiction before selling the magazine to editor Algis Budrys's UniFont.