Brandon Sanderson was born in Nebraska in 1975. His first novel was the acclaimed Elantris.
Since then he has written the Mistborn series and the standalone novel Warbreaker and become a New York Times bestselling author, hailed as the natural successor to Robert Jordan.
Indeed he was chosen by the Jordan estate to complete the Wheel of Time sequence following Jordan's death. He lives in Utah where he is working on The Way of Kings the first of a new epic fantasy series.