Brandon Winn Sanderson (born December 19, 1975) is an American author of high fantasy, science fiction, and young adult books.

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.

[7] After completing his missionary service, 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, as it allowed him to write while working.

[7] 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 game show Jeopardy!.

[9] 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.

[12] 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.

McDougal asked Sanderson to finish the series after being deeply impressed by his first Mistborn novel, The Final Empire.

[26] After reviewing what was necessary to complete the series, Sanderson and Tor announced on March 30, 2009, that a final three books would be published instead of just one.

The first of these, The Gathering Storm, was published on October 27, 2009, and reached the number-one spot on the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction.

[27][28] Towers of Midnight, the second-to-last The Wheel of Time book, was published just over a year after The Gathering Storm on November 2, 2010, debuting at number one on the bestseller list.

[30] In 2009, Tor Books published Warbreaker, which originally appeared serially on Sanderson's website while he was writing the novel from 2006 to 2009.

[40] On August 31, 2012, Sanderson published a science fiction novella entitled Legion, followed by another short work titled The Emperor's Soul.

On May 26, Brandon Sanderson revealed the title and cover for "Cytonic", the third book of his Skyward series, which was published on November 23, 2021.

Sanderson started a new podcast in June 2021 called 'Intentionally Blank', with friend and fellow science fiction author Dan Wells.

[67] 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.

[70] Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC is a company acting as publisher, storefront, and producer for various Sanderson-related products and projects.

[73][74] 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.

[75] In 2022, in his second Kickstarter project, Brandon 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.

[77] The Lightweaver Foundation is also responsible for raising money to support people and programs, largely within their local community.

The Lightweaver Foundation has also promoted literacy by supporting a writing conference for teens called Teen Author Bootcamp and also supporting Book Drop, which hosts popular authors to speak at schools and give away copies of their published works.

[78] 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, 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 without requiring readers to buy a ridiculous number of books.

In one case, the Shards Ruin and Preservation worked together to actually create a planet and its people (Scadrial, as featured in Mistborn).

[85][91] Sanderson's three laws of magic are creative writing guidelines that can be used to create magic systems for fantasy stories: Additionally, there is a zeroth law: Sanderson is adjunct faculty at Brigham Young University, teaching a creative writing course once per year.

[94][95] Sanderson also participates in the weekly podcast Writing Excuses with authors Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, and web cartoonist Howard Tayler.

[24] He began hosting the podcast Intentionally Blank with Dan Wells in June 2021, where they discuss random things they enjoy.