Brandon Sanderson

Early life Sanderson was born on December 19, 1975, in Lincoln, Nebraska, He made several early attempts at writing his own stories. In 1997, Sanderson returned to BYU and changed his major to English literature. While an undergraduate, Sanderson took a job as a night auditor at a local hotel in Provo, Utah, which allowed him to write while working. He graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts. He continued on as a graduate student, receiving an M.A. in English with an emphasis in creative writing in 2004. Emily was an English, Spanish, and ESL teacher and fellow BYU alumna; Emily later became the business manager for Dragonsteel Entertainment, Sanderson's company. ==Career==

Early writing career Sanderson wrote consistently throughout his undergraduate and graduate studies; by 2003, he had written twelve novels, though no publisher had accepted any of them for publication. One of the secret projects during the pandemic, Tress of the Emerald Sea, was released in book form in April 2023. In March 2024, Sanderson announced a further 'secret project' novel set for a 2025 release. Sanderson also collaborated with Unknown Worlds Entertainment to create the lore and setting for the video game Moonbreaker, which was released via early access in September 2022. The "biggest release the [fantasy] genre has seen in years" came about in December 2024 with the unveiling of Wind and Truth. This is Sanderson's fifth and final book in the first arc of The Stormlight Archive. Sanderson projects there will be at least five more books in the series, but the printing of these novels is not expected until 2031. The agreement seeks to develop feature films based on the Mistborn series and a television series adaptation of The Stormlight Archive, both of which are among Sanderson’s most commercially successful and widely read works. The deal is described as significant within the industry because it grants Sanderson an unusually high degree of creative involvement: he is expected to write, produce, consult on the adaptations, and retain approval rights over key production elements. Production roles have begun to take shape for The Stormlight Archive television project, with the production company Blue Marble Pictures attached and executive producer Theresa Kang linked to the series. == Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC ==

Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC is a company acting as publisher, storefront, and producer for various Sanderson-related products and projects. It is also known as Dragonsteel Books, according to Sanderson's personal blog as a rebranding tactic in 2021. It holds copyrights to many of Sanderson's novels and has self-published several of his stories in both digital and print formats. In 2024, Sanderson appeared before 5,000 fans at FanX in Salt Lake City, Utah, at a 50-minute panel. During the panel, Sanderson announced that Dragonsteel Entertainment had purchased land to "theoretically build a bookstore" called Dragonsteel Plaza. Dragonsteel Plaza would be home to a bookstore, outside market, and the headquarters for Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC. Kickstarter campaigns Sanderson first turned to Kickstarter in 2020, when he generated $6.7 million from almost 30,000 backers to produce a collectable leather-bound 10th anniversary edition of the Stormlight Archive novel, The Way of Kings. In 2022, in his second Kickstarter project, Sanderson raised over $41.7 million for four secret books, all intended as stand-alone novels, through Dragonsteel Entertainment. The crowdfunding campaign became the largest in Kickstarter history by pledge volume, surpassing the previous record holder by more than double. It also set new records for the most funds raised in the first 24 hours, with $15.4 million, as well as the highest number of backers and total funding within the same time period. In August 2024, Sanderson teamed up with Brotherwise Games to create a tabletop role-playing game (RPG) based on the mythical universe the Cosmere, featured in many of his fantasy novels. With over $14.6 million in pledges, the Kickstarter campaign broke the previous record in pledges for a tabletop RPG. == Community relations ==

In 2015, Brandon Sanderson and wife Emily Sanderson created a charitable organization called The Lightweaver Foundation. Its mission is to "Feed bodies. Fill minds. Fuel hope." Jane Horne is the director of the organization. The Lightweaver Foundation's first project helped students at Utah Valley University (UVU) and Brigham Young University (BYU) publish their speculative fiction in journals. The foundation set up an endowment fund to support university journals and ensure future publications of these journals continued. The Lightweaver Foundation is also responsible for raising money to support people and programs, largely within their local community. One of the major beneficiaries for these efforts has been the Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital. The Lightweaver Foundation has also promoted literacy by supporting a writing conference for teens called StoryCon (formerly Teen Author Bootcamp) and also supporting Book Drop, which hosts popular authors to speak at schools and give away copies of their published works. ==Cosmere==

The Cosmere is the name of the universe in which Elantris, Mistborn, Warbreaker, The Stormlight Archive, White Sand, Tress of the Emerald Sea, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, The Sunlit Man, Isles of the Emberdark, and stories contained in Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection are all set. This idea came from Sanderson's desire to create an epic-length series while also attempting to convince publishers to sell his books as a new writer. Sanderson has estimated that the Cosmere sequence could conclude with at least 40 books. ==Sanderson's laws of magic==

Sanderson makes an express distinction between "soft" and "hard" magic for purposes of world building and creating magic systems in fictional settings. Both terms are approximate ways of characterizing two ends of a spectrum. Hard magic systems follow specific rules; the magic is controlled and explained to the reader in the narrative detailing the mechanics behind the way the magic 'works' and can be used for building settings that revolve around the magic system. Soft magic systems may not have clearly defined rules or limitations, or they may provide limited exposition regarding their workings. They are used to create a sense of wonder in the reader. Sanderson's three laws of magic are creative writing guidelines that can be used to create magic systems for fantasy stories: • An author's ability to solve conflict with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic. • Weaknesses, limits and costs are more interesting than powers. • The author should expand on what is already a part of the magic system before something entirely new is added, as this may otherwise entirely change how the magic system fits into the fictional world. Additionally, there is a zeroth law: • Always err on the side of what's awesome. ==Teaching==

Sanderson is adjunct faculty at Brigham Young University, teaching a creative writing course once per year. Sanderson from 2008 to 2022 participated in the weekly podcast Writing Excuses with authors Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, and web cartoonist Howard Tayler. He began hosting the podcast Intentionally Blank with Dan Wells in June 2021, where they discuss random things they enjoy, often while Sanderson signs the front sheets that will eventually be inserted in his books once they are published. ==Published works==

==Selected awards and honors==

Sanderson has been nominated for (and also won) multiple awards for his various works. See Writing Excuses for additional awards and nominations. ==Notes==