1985 • Volume 1

The first Writers of the Future Awards ceremony took place at the famous Chasen’s restaurant in Beverly Hills, California on February 6, 1985. The launch year of Writers of the Future included only three Contest quarters before the Awards ceremony.

Algis Budrys remembers the event: “We met in a side room of Chasen’s restaurant to celebrate the conclusion of the first year of L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest.

“It seems barely credible now. We had twelve writers—among them Leonard Carpenter, Karen Joy Fowler, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Dean Wesley Smith, Mary Frances Zambreno and David Zindell, none of whom were household names at all.

“And we had judges and friends—Ray Bradbury, Robert Silverberg, Theodore Sturgeon, Jack Williamson, Dr. Gregory Benford, Roger Zelazny and A.E. van Vogt, who, no question, clearly were household names.”