John David Wolverton (May 28, 1957 – January 14, 2022), better known by his

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

s Dave Wolverton and David Farland, was an American author, editor, and instructor of online writing workshops and groups. He wrote in several genres but was known best for his

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

works. Books in his Runelords series hit the ''New York Times'' bestsellers list. In 1987, he won the Writers of the Future contest. He has been nominated for a

Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), a nonprofit association of pr ...

and a

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by th ...

. He died in the early morning hours of January 14, 2022. He lived in St. George, Utah, with his wife at the time of his death.

Life and career

Wolverton was born May 28, 1957,Some sources give his birth date as May 15. His official obituary gives May 28. in

Springfield, Oregon Springfield is a city in Lane County, Oregon, Lane County, Oregon, United States. Located in the Willamette Valley, Southern Willamette Valley, it is within the Eugene-Springfield, OR MSA, Eugene-Springfield metropolitan statistical area. Separ ...

to Jack and Lola Jean Wolverton. His family moved to a farm in

Monroe Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...

when he was six years old, where he grew up and graduated from Monroe High School. Following graduation, he served a volunteer mission in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

for

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

. Afterward, he attended

Ricks College Ricks may refer to: People * Andre Ricks (born 1996), American basketball player * Bob Ricks (21st century), American police chief * Christopher Ricks (born 1933), British literary critic and scholar * Desmond Ricks, American football player * ...

before transferring to

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

. He met his wife, Mary, there, and they married in the Provo Utah Temple on June 22, 1985. He and his wife had two daughters and three sons. He began writing in 1985 during college, publishing the short story "The Sky Is an Open Highway" in the fall 1985 issue of '' The Leading Edge''. Following that, he entered short stories into various contests, eventually winning first place in the 1987 Writers of the Future contest with the novella "On My Way to Paradise". The story was expanded into the novel of the same name, published in 1989 through

Bantam Spectra Bantam Spectra is the science fiction division of American publishing company Bantam Books, which is owned by Random House. According to their website, Spectra publishes "science fiction, fantasy, horror, and speculative novels from recogniza ...

. The novel was nominated for multiple awards, including the Philip K. Dick Award for "Best Novel in the English Language". He became a judge for the Writers of the Future contest in 1991 and was the Coordinating Judge and Editor at the time of his death. After co-editing volume 8 with

Algis Budrys Algirdas Jonas "Algis" Budrys (January 9, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, copy editing, editor and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome in collaboration with Jerome ...

in 1992, he took over editing of the annual anthology from volume 9 until volume 14 before passing the role back to

. Wolverton again took over editing the anthology from K. D. Wentworth, beginning with volume 29 and continuing through volume 37. His historical novel, ''In the Company of Angels'', won the 2009 Whitney Award for best novel of the year, and was a finalist in the best historical novel category. Wolverton also received an outstanding achievement award at the 2009 Whitneys. In 2012, his young adult fantasy thriller ''Nightingale'' won the International Book Award for best Young Adult Novel of the Year, the Grand Prize at the Hollywood Book Festival, and the Southern California Book Festival for Best Young Adult Novel. It was also a finalist in the Global Ebook Awards. He has been nominated for other awards, including the

in the Best Novelette category for his short story "After a Lean Winter". In the summer of 1998, Dave Wolverton broke the world record for the largest single author book signing which he achieved with '' A Very Strange Trip'', a book he wrote based on a story by

L. Ron Hubbard Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986) was an American author and the founder of Scientology. A prolific writer of pulp science fiction and fantasy novels in his early career, in 1950 he authored the pseudoscie ...

. He wrote under his own name at the beginning of his career, changing to the pseudonym David Farland in the mid-1990s with the release of the first ''Runelords'' book. Wolverton chose the pseudonym in order to have a name more fitting for a Fantasy author and so his physical books would be shelved closer to customers' eye levels in bookstores, rather than on lower shelves as the last name Wolverton had. Wolverton worked as an English professor of

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

from 1999 to 2002, and held writing workshops for aspiring and established writers. The creative writing class he taught at BYU was taken over by one of his former students,

Brandon Sanderson Brandon Winn Sanderson (born December19, 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 '' Mistb ...

. He taught other writers such as Brandon Mull, Jessica Day George,

Eric Flint Eric Flint (February 6, 1947 – July 17, 2022) was an American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his works are alternate history science fiction, but he also wrote humorous fantasy adventures. His works have been listed on ' ...

Stephenie Meyer Stephenie Meyer (; Morgan; born December 24, 1973) is an American novelist and film producer. She is best known for writing the vampire literature, vampire romance series ''Twilight (novel series), Twilight'', which has sold over 160 million ...

, James Dashner, as well as others. He worked in the gaming industry and greenlit screenplays in Hollywood. In 1998, Wolverton started working part-time at Saffire Studios, helping create video games. He was responsible for the concept of "lurkers" in the well-known RTS (

Real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

) game Starcraft: Brood War. In 2002, he began working as a movie producer and also greenlighted movies. He was working on a film adaptation of his Runelords series. On January 13, 2022, Wolverton suffered from a fall, resulting in a severe head injury and a

hemorrhagic stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop ...

. He was on life support until he died early the next morning at the age of 64 in St. George, Utah. He was buried in the Tonaquint Cemetery in St. George, Utah. At the time of his death he was known to be working on three books: A rewrite of 2011's ''Nightingale'', a new Runelords installment titled ''A Tale of Tales'', and a fourth book in his Ravenspell series titled ''S.W.A.R.M.''

Bibliography

The Runelords * '' The Sum of All Men'' (also released as ''The Runelords'') (April 1998,

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles. History Tor was founded by Tom Doherty, ...

, ) * '' Brotherhood of the Wolf'' (May 1999, Tor Books, ) * '' Wizardborn'' (March 2001, Tor Books, ) * '' The Lair of Bones'' (November 2003, Tor Books, ) * '' Sons of the Oak'' (November 2006, Tor Books, ) * '' Worldbinder'' (September 2007, Tor Books, ) * '' The Wyrmling Horde'' (September 2008, Tor Books, ) * '' Chaosbound'' (October 2009, Tor Books, ) * '' A Tale of Tales'' (forthcoming) Serpent Catch
Originally released as two books: * ''Serpent Catch'' (May 1991,

, ) * ''Path of the Hero'' (April 1993,

, ) Rereleased as four books under his Farland pseudonym: * ''Spirit Walker'' (March 2014,

WordFire Press Kevin James Anderson (born March 27, 1962) is an American science fiction author. He has written spin-off novels for ''Star Wars'', '' StarCraft'', ''Titan A.E.'' and ''The X-Files'', and with Brian Herbert is the co-author of the ''Dune'' pre ...

, ) * ''Serpent Catch'' (April 2014,

, ) * ''Blade Kin'' (April 2014,

, ) * ''Path of the Crushed Heart'' (April 2014,

, ) The Golden Queen
Originally released as by Wolverton, later as by Farland: * ''The Golden Queen'' (August 1994, Tor Books, ) * ''Beyond the Gate'' (August 1995, Tor Books, ) * ''Lords of the Seventh Swarm'' (February 1997, Tor Books, ) An omnibus was also released as by Farland. A related short story was also released: * ''Worlds of the Golden Queen'' (June 2005, Tor Books, ) * "Saint Orick" in ''Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera for a New Age'' edited by

Bryan Thomas Schmidt Bryan Thomas Schmidt (born February 13, 1969) is an American science fiction author and editor. He has edited (or co-edited) twenty-two anthologies, and written a space opera trilogy, and an ongoing, near-future police procedural series set in K ...

(December 2013, Every Day Publishing, ) Ravenspell
A middle-grade fantasy series. * ''Of Mice and Magic'' (2005, Covenant, ) * ''The Wizard of Ooze'' (2007, Covenant, ) * ''Freaky Flyday'' (2015, David Farland Entertainment, ) Star Wars
* '' The Courtship of Princess Leia'' (May 1994, Bantam Spectra, ) * '' The Rising Force'' (June 1999, Scholastic, ) * ''The Hunt for Anakin Skywalker'' (February 2000, Scholastic, ) * ''Capture Arawynne'' (March 2000, Scholastic, ) * ''Trouble on Tatooine'' (April 2000, Scholastic, ) * ''The Ghostling Children'' (January 2001, Scholastic, ) L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Wolverton edited the following anthologies: * ''Volume VIII'' with

(1992, Bridge Publications, ) * ''Volume IX'' (1993, Bridge Publications, ) * ''Volume X'' (May 1994, Bridge Publications, ) * ''Volume XI'' (June 1995, Bridge Publications, ) * ''Volume XII'' (May 1996, Bridge Publications, ) * ''Volume XIII'' (October 1997, Bridge Publications, ) * ''Volume XIV'' (October 1998, Bridge Publications, ) * ''Volume XXIX'' (June 2013, Galaxy Press, ) * ''Volume 30'' (February 2014, Galaxy Press, ) * ''Volume 31'' (May 2015, Galaxy Press, ) * ''Volume 32'' (May 2016, Galaxy Press, ) * ''Volume 33'' (April 2017, Galaxy Press, ) * ''Volume 34'' (April 2018, Galaxy Press, ) * ''Volume 35'' (April 2019, Galaxy Press, ) * ''Volume 36'' (April 2020, Galaxy Press, ) * ''Volume 37'' (November 2021, Galaxy Press, )

Selected awards and honors

Wolverton has been nominated for and won multiple awards for his various works.

Life and career

Bibliography

Selected awards and honors

Notes

References

External links