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

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, 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 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 (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

works. Books in his Runelords series hit the ''New York Times'' bestsellers list. In 1987, he won the

Writers of the Future Writers of the Future (WOTF) is a science fiction and fantasy story contest that was established by L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1980s. A sister contest, Illustrators of the Future, presents awards for science fiction art. Hubbard characterized th ...

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 of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of profe ...

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 and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

. He died in the early morning hours of January 14, 2022. He lived in

St. George, Utah St. George is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Utah, United States. Located in southwestern Utah on the Arizona border, it is the principal city of the St. George Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The city lies in the northe ...

, 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, United States. Located in the Southern Willamette Valley, it is within the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. Separated from Eugene to the west, mainly by Interstate 5, Springfield ...

to Jack and Lola Jean Wolverton. His family moved to a farm in Monroe 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. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

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 Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of 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 * Doug Ricks, American politician and member ...

before transferring to

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

. He met his wife, Mary, there, and they married in the

Provo Utah Temple Provo or Provos may refer to: In geography In the United States * Provo, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Provo, South Dakota, an unincorporated community * Provo Township, Fall River County, South Dakota * Provo, Utah, a city ** Provo ...

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

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 The Philip K. Dick Award is an American science fiction award given annually at Norwescon and sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and (since 2005) the Philip K. Dick Trust. Named after science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, ...

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, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome (in collaboration with Jerome Bixby), John ...

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 Kathy Diane Wentworth (January 27, 1951 – April 18, 2012), known as K. D. Wentworth, was an American science fiction author. A University of Tulsa graduate, she got her start winning the Writers of the Future Contest in 1988, and then late ...

, beginning with volume 29 and continuing through volume 37. His historical novel, ''In the Company of Angels'', won the 2009

Whitney Award The Whitney Awards are awards given annually for novels by LDS authors. Established in 2007, they are named after Orson F. Whitney, a prominent early member of the LDS Church. There are several categories for which novels may be nominated. The Whi ...

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 International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

for best Young Adult Novel of the Year, the Grand Prize at the

Hollywood Book Festival The Hollywood Book Festival is an annual book festival in Hollywood, California (LA). Honored, are books that deserve more attention from television, video gaming,and multimedia communities. The book festival is one of the only publishing fest ...

, 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, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

'', 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, primarily of science fiction and fantasy stories, who is best known for having founded the Church of Scientology. In 1950, Hubbard authored '' Dianeti ...

. 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 worked as an English professor of

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

from 1999–2002, 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 December 19, 1975) is an American author of high fantasy and science fiction. He is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the ''Mistborn'' series and ''The ...

. He taught other writers such as

Brandon Mull Brandon Mull is an American author best known for his children's fantasy series, ''Fablehaven'', as well as ''Dragonwatch'', ''The Candy Shop War'', the '' Beyonders'' trilogy, and the ''Five Kingdoms'' series.Howard, Chris (March 7, 2008)Interv ...

Jessica Day George Jessica Day George is an American author who lives in Utah. She is a ''New York Times'' bestselling author of Young Adult fantasy novels, and she received the 2007 Whitney Award for Best Book by a New Author for ''Dragon Slippers''. Having attend ...

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

Stephenie Meyer Stephenie Meyer (; née 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 100 mill ...

James Dashner James Smith Dashner (born November 26, 1972) is an American writer known for speculative fiction. Many of his books are primarily aimed at children or young adults. He is best known for ''The Maze Runner'' series and the young adult fantasy seri ...

, 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 do not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, turn ...

) 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 A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

. He was on life support until he died early the next morning at the age of 64 in

. 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 2012's Nightingale, Runelords: Tale of Tales, and a fourth book in his Ravenspell series titled S.W.A.R.M.

Bibliography

The Runelords The Runelords is a series of fantasy novels by American author David Farland (1957 – 2022) of which the first part was published in 1998. In the universe of The Runelords, there exists a unique magical system which relies on the existence of ...

* ''

The Sum of All Men ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' (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, and is the largest publisher of Chinese scien ...

, ) * ''

Brotherhood of the Wolf ''Brotherhood of the Wolf'' (french: Le Pacte des loups) is a 2001 French period action horror film directed by Christophe Gans, co-written by Gans and Stéphane Cabel, and starring Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Émilie Dequenne, Monica Bel ...

'' (May 1999, Tor Books, ) * ''

Wizardborn ''Wizardborn'' is an epic fantasy novel by American writer David Farland, the third novel in his series The Runelords. Plot introduction ''Wizardborn'' is an epic fantasy novel set in a land where men can bestow to each other a number of endowm ...

'' (March 2001, Tor Books, ) * ''

The Lair of Bones ''The Lair of Bones'' is an epic fantasy novel by American writer David Farland, the fourth in his series The Runelords. It is the final book in the saga's original story arc. Plot introduction ''The Lair of Bones'' is an epic fantasy novel set ...

'' (November 2003, Tor Books, ) * ''

Sons of the Oak ''Sons of the Oak'' is an epic fantasy novel by American writer David Farland, the fifth book in his series The Runelords.. It chronicles the life of the Earth King Gaborn Val Orden's son Fallion as he matures and begins to discover powers even h ...

'' (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'' pr ...

, ) * ''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) fifteen anthologies, a space opera trilogy, and an ongoing, near-future police procedural series set in Kansas City, Mi ...

(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 Galaxy Press is a trade name set up to publish and promote the fiction works of L. Ron Hubbard, and the anthologies of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest. The company was separated from Bridge Publications in the early 2000s, and ...

, ) * ''Volume 30'' (February 2014,

, ) * ''Volume 31'' (May 2015,

, ) * ''Volume 32'' (May 2016,

, ) * ''Volume 33'' (April 2017,

, ) * ''Volume 34'' (April 2018,

, ) * ''Volume 35'' (April 2019,

, ) * ''Volume 36'' (April 2020,

, ) * ''Volume 37'' (November 2021,

, )

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