Photo: Niccolò Caranti / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
What gets me about Brandon Sanderson is the sheer scale of his ambition. Building the interconnected Cosmere across the Mistborn and Stormlight Archive books is the kind of long-game world-building most authors only dream about, and he keeps the machine running with almost industrial consistency. That 2013 Hugo for Best Novella tells me he can nail the short form too, not just the doorstoppers. I also respect that he didn't box himself in, branching into young adult work like The Reckoners and Skyward. Coming out of Brigham Young University in Nebraska, he feels less like a literary celebrity and more like a craftsman who simply shows up and writes.
Overview
Brandon Winn Sanderson (born December 19, 1975) is an American author of high fantasy, science fiction, and young adult books. His best known novels include the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, which are set in the "Cosmere", a fictional universe. Outside of the Cosmere, he has written several young adult and juvenile series including The Reckoners, the Skyward series, and the Alcatraz series.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Brandon Sanderson
- Name (Japanese)
- ブランドン・サンダースン
- Reading
- ぶらんどん・さんだーすん
- Born
- December 19, 1975 (age 50)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Sagittarius / Rabbit
- Origin
- Lincoln, Nebraska, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- novelist / short story writer / writer / author
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Lincoln East High School
- University
- Brigham Young University
Awards & achievements
- 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novella
- 2015 Audie Award for Fantasy
- 2013 Hugo Award for Best Related Work
- 2007 Whitney Awards
- 2022 Audie Award for Fantasy
- 2013 Imaginales award for best foreign-language novel
- 2018 Dragon Award for Best Fantasy Novel
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | Elantris | — | |
| Notable work | Warbreaker | — | |
| Notable work | Mistborn | — | |
| Notable work | The Stormlight Archive | — | |
| Notable work | The Reckoners | — | |
| Notable work | Rithmatist series | — |
6. Links
Novelist — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.