Announcing Winners to be Published in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future 36

Twelve winning writers and twelve winning illustrators from around the globe will be flown to Hollywood, California this coming April for a weeklong workshop culminating in a gala awards ceremony and the release of L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 36 featuring their work.

The 12 Writer Winners of this year’s contest include:

• Zach Be of Wheaton, MD (Second Quarter Winner)
• J. Bergmann of Madison, WI (First Quarter Winner)
• Tim Boiteau of Bloomfield Hills, MI (Second Quarter Winner)
• Andy Dibble of Madison, WI (First Quarter Winner)
• David Elsenhohn of Los Angeles, CA (Fourth Quarter Winner)
• Michael Gardner of Amaroo, ACT, Australia (Third Quarter Winner)
• L. George of Pontypool, Torfaen, UK (Second Quarter Winner)
• Storm Humbert of Westland, MI (Third Quarter Winner)
• Katherine Livingston of Lawton, OK (Second Quarter Winner)
• Leah Ning of Herndon, VA (Fourth Quarter Winner)
• Winspear of Blacktown, NSW, Australia (Fourth Quarter Winner)
• Sonny Zae of Plano, TX (First Quarter Winner)

The 12 Illustrator Winners of this year’s contest include:

• Brock Aguirre of Sammamish, WA (First Quarter Winner)
• Aidin Andrews of Bellingham, WA (Third Quarter Winner)
• Daniel Bitton of Hollywood, FL (First Quarter Winner)
• Arthur Bowling of Columbia, MD (Fourth Quarter Winner)
• Irmak (Max) Cavun of Bursa, Turkey (Third Quarter Winner)
• Kaitlyn Goldberg of Grand Rapids, MI (Fourth Quarter Winner)
• Ben Hill of Mims, FL (First Quarter Winner)
• John Dale Javier of La Plata, MD (Second Quarter Winner)
• Heather Laurence of Sault Saint Marie, MI (Second Quarter Winner)
• Anh Le of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Fourth Quarter Winner)
• Mason Matak of Tehran, Iran (Third Quarter Winner)
• Phoebe Rothfeld of Chico, CA (Second Quarter Winner)

Participating in the ceremony will be best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson (Dune prequel series), Eric Flint (1632), Larry Niven (Ringworld), Tim Powers (On Stranger Tides, which Pirates of the Caribbean IV was based on), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn series, Stormlight Archive) and Robert J. Sawyer, referred to as Canada’s Dean of Science Fiction; as well as award-winning artists Bob Eggleton (11 Chesley Awards and 7 Hugo Awards), Rob Prior (art for Spawn, Heavy Metal magazine and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Ciruelo (Eragon Coloring Book), who will all serve as presenters.

Throughout the Contests’ 36-year history, over 774 writers and illustrators have been recognized as winners. “What’s amazing to me is that a good 60 to 70% of winners go on to successful careers,” says New York Times best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson. “You could call it ‘The American Idol’ for writers—long before there ever was such a show.”

The Writers of the Future writing contest (www.writersofthefuture.com) was initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1984 to provide “a means for new and budding writers to have a chance for their creative efforts to be seen and acknowledged.” Based on its success, its sister contest, Illustrators of the Future was created five years later to provide that same opportunity for the aspiring artist.

The intensive mentoring process has proven very successful. The 428 past winners of the Writing Contest have published 1,150 novels and nearly 4,500 short stories. They have produced 33 New York Times bestsellers and their works have sold over 60 million copies.

The 358 past winners of the Illustrating Contest have produced over 6,000 illustrations, 360 comic books, graced 624 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 68 TV shows and 40 major movies.

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