Sanderson had submitted the manuscript of his sixth novel, Elantris, a year and a half earlier. While in the middle of a graduate program at BYU, Tor Books editor Moshe Feder contacted him to say that he wanted to acquire one of his books. Sanderson wrote consistently throughout his undergraduate and graduate studies, and by 2003 he had written twelve novels, though no publisher had accepted any of them for publication. They have a pet scarlet macaw called Magellan. They have three sons and reside in American Fork, Utah. In 2006, Sanderson married Emily Bushman, a fellow English major and teacher, who later became his business manager. While at BYU, Sanderson was on the staff of Leading Edge, a semi-professional speculative fiction magazine published by the university, and served as its editor-in-chief for one year. in English with an emphasis in creative writing in 2004. in English in 2000, then continued on as a graduate student at BYU, receiving an M.A. One of Sanderson's roommates at BYU was Ken Jennings, who nearly ten years later became famous during his 74-game win streak on the American game show Jeopardy!. While an undergraduate, Sanderson took a job as a night auditor at a local hotel in Provo, Utah, as it allowed him to write while working. Īfter completing his missionary service, Sanderson returned to BYU and changed his major to English literature. He took a two-year leave of absence from 1995 to 1997 to serve as a volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was assigned to serve in South Korea. After graduating from high school in 1994, he went to Brigham Young University (BYU) as a biochemistry major. Sanderson became a passionate reader of high fantasy novels while a teenager, and he made several early attempts at writing his own stories. Life and career Early life and education īrandon Sanderson was born on December 19, 1975, in Lincoln, Nebraska.
In 2016, the American media company DMG Entertainment licensed the movie rights to Sanderson's entire Cosmere universe. In 2008, Sanderson started a podcast with author Dan Wells and cartoonist Howard Tayler called Writing Excuses, involving topics about creating genre writing and webcomics. He created Sanderson's Laws of Magic and popularized the terms "hard and soft magic systems".
He is also known for finishing Robert Jordan's high fantasy series The Wheel of Time and has created several graphic novel fantasy series including the White Sand and Dark One. Outside of the Cosmere, he has written several young adult and juvenile series including The Reckoners, the Skyward series, and the Alcatraz series. He is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, are set. Sanderson at the 2016 Lucca Comics & Games conventionįinal three books in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Timeīrandon Sanderson (born December 19, 1975) is an American author of epic fantasy and science fiction.