The United Kingdom Presents L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future

It is a fact that the United Kingdom is home to several winners of the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests as well as one of its celebrated Illustrator judges and has been for over three decades.

The earliest international bestselling authors published in the L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future series date back to 1988, when the late Jo Beverley was a published finalist who went on to considerable success in the historical romance genre. Stephen Baxter, who writes hard science fiction, was a winner in 1989, followed in 1993 by Elizabeth Wein, best known for her #1 New York Times bestselling novel Code Name Verity.

The most recent winners include Writers of the Future Volume 36 winner J. L. George of Pontypool, with her story “Catching My Death,” and Volume 38 winner Michael Panter, now residing in Sweden, with his story “Lilt of a Lark,” and the Volume 37 Illustrators of the Future grand prize-winning illustrator, Dan Watson of Reading, with his fantastical art for “How to Steal the Plot Armor” by Luke Wildman. All three of these winners were recently featured in episode #179 of the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Podcast.

UK Illustrators of the Future judge since 2017, Mike Perkins is an award-winning illustrator who has worked on Marvel Comics’ Captain America, Thor, and The X-Men. After wrapping up a thirty-one-issue adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, he transitioned into illustrating Astonishing X-Men and has now relaunched Deathlok. Perkins contributed an article for the aspiring artist trying to make it in the industry published in Writers of the Future Volume 36 appropriately titled “Breaking In.”

Author Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), featured in Volume 37 with his article “On ‘Magic Out of a Hat’” noted about the Contest’s success: “Writers of the Future, as a contest and as a book, remains the flagship of short fiction.”

Thanks to a partnership between Galaxy Press and Gazelle Book Services, the international best-selling series, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, is available in stores throughout the United Kingdom, including Waterstones, Foyles, and independent bookstores.