Robison Wells: Mormon Author

Robison Wells is a novelist and founder of the Whitney Awards, an awards program for Latter-day Saint fiction. He served as president of the Whitney Awards Committee from its inception in 2007 to 2010. He served on the board of directors of LDStorymakers, the sponsor of the Whitney Awards. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Wells was born on April 4, 1978. He had a number of creative interests during his teen years—including painting, set design, architectural design—but writing was not one of them. He started college as an architecture major, but soon moved onto history, anthropology, and political science. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Utah, with an emphasis in international relations and a minor in history. Six years later (2009) he earned his MBA degree in marketing from Brigham Young University.

During college, his first book idea surfaced. His brother, author Dan Wells, was then pursuing a degree in English at BYU, so Robison shared his idea and suggested Dan use it. Instead, Dan invited Robison to write a few chapters and come join his writing group, which included Brandon Sanderson. Robison ultimately was the first in the group to be published.

His titles include On Second Thought (2004), Wake Me When It’s Over (2005), The Counterfeit (2006), Variant (2011), Feedback (2012), Going Dark (2013, Blackout (2013), and Dead Zone (2014). Much of his writing is for young adults.

Wells ran the LDS Fiction Review Database on his website for a year with the goal to link Latter-day Saint fiction to reviews, and hoped to raise awareness of and respect for the quality of Latter-day Saint fiction. He then switched gears and wanted to help readers find good books by awarding good Latter-day Saint fiction; and the Whitney Awards were born.

Wells is an advocate for mental illness; he has panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and agoraphobia. Wells and his wife and three children live in Utah.