Dave Wolverton

John David Wolverton (May 28, 1957 – January 14, 2022), better known by his pen names 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 and fantasy works. Books in his Runelords series hit the New York Times bestsellers list.

In 1987, he won the

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.[3]^[6] After co-editing volume 8 with Algis Budrys in 1992, he took over editing of the annual anthology from volume 9 until volume 14 before passing the role back to Algis Budrys.^[7] Wolverton again took over editing the anthology from K. D. Wentworth, beginning with volume 29 and continuing through volume 37.^[7]

His historical novel, In the Company of Angels, won the 2009

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. 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. ^[1]

Wolverton worked as an English professor of creative writing at Brigham Young University from 1999 to 2002,^[1] and held writing workshops for aspiring and established writers.^[2] The creative writing class he taught at BYU was taken over by one of his former students, Brandon Sanderson.^[15] He taught other writers such as Brandon Mull, Jessica Day George, Eric Flint, Stephenie Meyer, James Dashner, as well as others.^[16][17][18]

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 (

The Runelords

• ISBN 0-312-86653-4
  )
• ISBN 0-312-86742-5
  )
• ISBN 0-312-86741-7
  )
• ISBN 0-765-30176-8
  )
• ISBN 0-765-30177-6
  )
• ISBN 0-765-31665-X
  )
• ISBN 978-0-7653-1666-0
  )
• ISBN 978-0-7653-2168-8
  )
• A Tale of Tales (forthcoming)