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Writers and Illustrators of the Future Volume 31

Writers and Illustrators of the Future Volume 31

WOTF 31 Front CoverHollywood, CA — Twenty-five writers and artists from around the globe will see their work published in Writers of the Future Volume 31 to be officially released on Monday, May 4. The winners had been honored April 12th, at the 31st Annual L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards at the prestigious Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The two grand prize honors were captured by Sharon Roest (pen name Sharon Joss) of Aloha, OR who was awarded the The Golden Pen Award and a $5,000 cash prize and Michelle Lochamy of Browns Mills, NJ who was awarded the The Golden Brush Award and a $5,000 cash prize.

The 12 Writer winners included:

  • Michael T. Banker of Kew Gardens, NY
  • Daniel Davis of Winston Salem, NC
  • Krystal Claxton Grell of Brooklet, GA
  • Auston Habershaw of Dorchester, MA
  • Amy Hughes of Bountiful, UT
  • Samantha Murray of Perth, West Aus, Australia
  • Tim Napper of Ha Noi, Vietnam
  • Steve Pantazis of Oceanside, CA
  • Scott Parkin of Orem, UT
  • Sharon Roest (Sharon Joss) of Aloha, OR
  • Martin Shoemaker of Hopkins, MI
  • Kary English of Summerland, CA

In addition, writer Zach Chapman of San Antonio, TX was honored as a published finalist.

The 12 Illustrator winners included:

  • Alex Brock of Tucson, AZ
  • Amit Dutta of Upper Hutt, Wellington, NZ
  • Megan Kelchner of Tiverton, RI
  • Tung Chi Lee of San Francisco, CA
  • Shuangjian Liu of San Francisco, CA
  • Michelle Lockamy of Browns Mills, NJ
  • Megen Nelsen of Malabar, FL
  • Taylor Payton of Minneapolis, MN
  • Quinlan Septer of Ada, Michigan
  • Emily Siu of Pasadena, CA
  • Daniel Tyka of Warsaw, Poland
  • Choong Nyung Yoon of New York, NY

The annual event celebrated the winners in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests before a packed hall with over 1,000 guests and hundreds more who were logged on to watch the event as it streamed live. A unique characteristic of the Hubbard Achievement Awards event is its use of music and dance to both complement and celebrate writing and art. The evening’s event opened with a beautiful original song dedicated to writers and artists entitled “Voices of the Future,” performed by Stacy Francis and Gabriel Manro.Tom Doherty

Mr. Tom Doherty, Publisher of Tor Books, received the L. Ron Hubbard Lifetime Achievement Award and stated when receiving the honor, “To be given an award for what I’d do for play, what could be better.” He concluded by saying, “Thank you again to the Writers of the Future and its late founder, L. Ron Hubbard for having the vision and the foresight to make dreams come true. Together we build new tomorrows.”

The night’s keynote speaker was Mr. William Pomerantz, Vice President for Special Projects of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, the world’s first spaceline. After speaking about his dreams as a youth of working in a spaceship factory, and then later in life being told that his dreams were impossible stated, “I owe a huge debt to you and to those who have come before you. It was through science fiction that I learned that optimism, and through science fiction that I reclaimed it rather than falling victim to that jaded skepticism of our modern world.” He concluded by congratulating all the evening’s Contest winners.
WOTF GROUP SHOTS 20150045
The event celebrated the annual winners in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests, where twelve writer and twelve illustrator winners, and one writer finalist—who made it further than some several thousand others who entered the international competition—saw their story and artwork published in the bestselling Science Fiction anthology series—L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 31, now available online at Amazon.com, KOBO.com and BN.com and soon to be available in print wherever books are sold.

With writers and illustrators coming from all walks of life, the winners attended a week long workshop taught by contest judges—including New York Times bestselling authors Dave Wolverton (Runelord series) and Kevin J. Anderson (Dune series), World Fantasy Award winner Tim Powers (On Stranger Tides, adapted as the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean film), multiple Hugo and Nebula award winner Robert J. Sawyer (Flash Forward and The WWW Trilogy), Hugo and Nebula award winning author Larry Niven (the Ringworld series), and internationally acclaimed artists, Cliff Nielsen (cover artist for Chronicles of Narnia), Dave Dorman (Star Wars character designs) and Larry Elmore (Dungeons & Dragons art design)—each one an experienced professional in the field providing sound advice based on hard-won experience.

Each writing and illustrating contest winner was presented their trophy by contest judges at the ceremony and combined cash prizes and royalties of over $30,000, and their story with artwork published in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Volume 31.

The Writers of the Future writing contest was initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 to provide a means for aspiring writers to get that much-needed break. Due to the success of the Writing Contest, the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest was created in 1988.

The intensive mentoring process has proven very successful. The 368 past winners of the Writing Contest have published 838 novels and nearly 4,000 short stories. They have produced 27 New York Times bestsellers and their works have sold over 50 million copies.

The 298 past winners of the Illustrating Contest have produced over 4,500 illustrations, 356 comic books, graced 594 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 36 TV shows and 46 major movies.

For more information and to see the awards ceremony online, go to www.writersofthefuture.com.

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