2024 • Volume 40
On the evening of Thursday, April 25, 2024, 350 guests were gathered at the Taglyan Cultural Complex in Hollywood, California, for the Oscar-like gala celebrating four decades of winners of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future, now totaling 965 from 50 countries.
The cover artwork illustrated by Illustrators of the Future Contest Judge Dan dos Santos, entitled Starcatcher, inspired the story “Shaman Dreams,” written by Writers of the Future Contest Judge S.M. Stirling. Voice actors Jim, Tamra, Taylor Meskimen, and Victoria Summer recorded the audiobook for Volume 40.
United Public Radio Network broadcast this year’s awards show to 50,000 viewers on Roku, 10,000 viewers on Amazon Firestick and over 1.1 million on the live broadcast, and an additional 4 million on an event broadcast re-air.
The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Workshops were held at the Loews Hollywood Hotel.
THE GRAND PRIZE WINNERS
Winners from this year’s competitions hailed from eight countries: Canada, China, Malaysia (first time for this country), the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Jack Nash from Arlington, VA, was named the 2024 Grand Prize Golden Pen Writer Winner, and Tyler Vail from Bryan, TX, was named the 2024 Illustrator Grand Prize Golden Brush Winner.
CELEBRATING FOUR DECADES
Founding Contest Judge Dr. Gregory Benford, author of Timescape, which won the Nebula, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and the Ditmar Award, provided an article entitled “Forty Years of Writers of the Future.” Dean Wesley Smith was the first person ever to receive a Writers of the Future Award and has since become a multiple NYT bestselling author currently producing novels in four separate series including the superhero series starring detective Sky Tate for which he wrote the story “Lost Robot” in Writers of the Future Volume 35. Dean provided his perspective in his article “It Seemed Like Just Yesterday,” wherein he lays out the 40 years following his publication in Volume 1. Additional Volume 1 winners joining the celebration included Leonard Carpenter, the author of eleven Conan the Barbarian novels. Nina Kiriki Hoffman is now also a Contest Judge and a Bram Stoker Award winner for The Thread That Binds the Bones and Nebula Award winner for “Trophy Wives” and over 250 published short stories. All three are now prominent authors in the science-fiction and fantasy genre.
During the event, Dean Wesley Smith was invited to the stage to speak with the audience on what Writers of the Future had meant to him and his career. “The first year of the Writers of the Future Contest changed just about everything for me.” He described authoring over 200 novels and hundreds of short stories.
HONORARY DRAGON AWARD
Emily Goodwin, Vice President of Public Relations Author Services, Inc., accepted an Honorary Dragon Award from Pat Henry, co-founder and President of Dragon Con. In presenting the award, Pat stated, “The Dragon Award, emblematic of individuality, greatness, and excellence across the spectrum of science fiction and fantasy, is a tribute to those who elevate the genre. On the 40th anniversary of Writers and Artists of the Future, I proudly present this Honorary Dragon Award to L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest.”
Snapshot from 2024
Year in the Contests
Contest Growth
This year, the Writers’ Contest turned forty and the Illustrators’ Contest turned thirty-five. After all these years, the Contests still continue to grow and the number of entries increased beyond any previous year.
Winners in this volume hail from eight countries: Canada, China, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
Awards for the Contest and Anthology
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 38 won the Gold Award from the Independent Book Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Awards for Fiction: Science Fiction & Fantasy at the 2023 event.
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 38 also won the Gold Award for Science Fiction category from the Independent Publishers Association Book Awards (ippy Award).
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 38 won the Silver Award in Anthologies at the eLit Book Awards 2023.
The International Review of Books gave L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 39 a Badge of Achievement with “No corner of the speculative fiction genre has been left untouched with these epic stories told by the hottest new authors, and illustrated by the most talented within the industry.”
The 2022 Critters Annual Readers Poll awarded the Contest for Best Writers’ Discussion Forum.
L. Ron Hubbard and the Writers of the Future Contest received an award from Salt Lake City FanX for forty years of service to the science fiction and fantasy community.
Welcoming New Judges to the Contests’ Panel
This year we welcomed two new judges.
Hugh Howey joined our Writers’ Contest panel of judges. Hugh is the New York Times bestselling author of Wool, Beacon 23, Sand, Machine Learning, and over a dozen other novels. His works have been translated into over forty languages around the world. Apple tv’s #1 hit drama Silo is based on his novels, and Beacon 23 is coming to amc.
Brian C. Hailes is our newest Illustrators of the Future Contest judge. Brian was an Illustrators’ Contest winner in 2002, featured in Volume 18. Hailes has written and/or illustrated over sixty titles, including illustrated novels, graphic novels, and many short stories, and children’s books.
Notable Accomplishments From Alumni and Judges
Here is a selection of the many accomplishments from our Contest judges and winners.
Judges
Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson won a Dragon Award for Best Comic Book or Graphic Novel for their Dune: House Harkonnen. The graphic novel Dune Book 1 made the BookAuthority.org list of 100 Best Graphic Novel Books of All Time. They also released Princess of Dune.
Echo Chernik was the Artist Guest of Honor for LosCon 2023.
Bob Eggleton’s illustrated deluxe edition of King Kong was published by Easton Press.
Nina Kiriki Hoffman sold several stories to Pulphouse and Fantasy & Science Fiction magazines plus three original anthologies. She also taught writing through Connecticut’s Fairfield County Writers’ Studio and Wordcrafters in Eugene.
Todd McCaffrey released The Jupiter Game and finished writing the eight books of his L.A. Witch series.
Nnedi Okorafor (Vol. 18) had a New York Times bestseller this year with her novel Akata Woman. The book also won the World Science Fiction Society’s Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book.
Tim Powers released his novel My Brother’s Keeper with Baen Books.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch published two books in her Diving series, as well as another novel and a nonfiction book. She edited the annual Holiday Spectacular, releasing four books as part of that project through her company, WMG Publishing.
Brandon Sanderson released his four secret project books: Tress of the Emerald Sea, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and The Sunlit Man. Plus Defiant (The Skyward Series Book 4) came out in November 2023.
Dan dos Santos is the official artist for the newest Marvel Masterpieces trading card set. Dan painted more than 135 original works of art featuring Marvel’s greatest superheroes for this collectors’ package.
Robert J. Sawyer’s twenty-fifth novel, The Downloaded, debuted in October 2023 as an Audible Original starring Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser; the print version will be out in May 2024. Rob was a guest of honor at the 81st World Science Fiction Convention (“the Worldcon”), which, for the first time ever, was held in China. In April 2023, he was awarded the L. Ron Hubbard Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts.
Alumni
Desmond Astaire (Vol. 38) released a novel, Paranom, and five short stories came out in anthologies/magazines.
Scott T. Barnes (Vol. 28) edited Cosmic Muse, an anthology of forty-three stories and poems featuring Writers of the Future winners and nominees, including his short story, “A Galaxy of Cranks.”
Zack Be (Vol. 36) published “The Visions Are Free After Exit 73” in Asimov’s Science Fiction, “Trust Fall” in Analog. He edited Inner Workings: A Calendar of Fools Anthology featuring short stories by sixteen Writers of the Future winners.
F. J. Bergmann (Vol. 36) published her short story “In the Cards” in Inner Workings, “Olympian” in Pulp Literature 38, and “The Sport of Snails” was performed on Space Cowboy Books Presents: Simultaneous Times Ep. 65.
Lazarus Black (Vol. 38) released his first novel, The True Dragon of Atlanta.
Bruce Brenneise (Vol. 34) attended fourteen conventions this past year selling his art, including in Toronto and Abu Dhabi. An interview with Bruce was featured in ImagineFX magazine.
Zach Chapman (Vol. 31) wrote two comic books, House of Blood and A Haunting on Mars, which released this past year.
Andy Dibble (Vol. 36) published “Every Me Is Someone Else” in Diabolical Plots, “The Baptismal Status of Persons Wetted by the Sprinkler Deluge” in Mysterion, “Render Unto Jesus” in Sci Phi Journal, and “Pro-Vote” in Inner Workings.
Kirbi Fagan (Vol. 30) illustrated the children’s book A Horse Named Sky and it has since hit the New York Times bestseller list.
John Haas (Vol. 35) released the second novel in his Book of Ancient Evil Series through WordFire Press and signed the contract for his third.
David Hankins (Vol. 39) novelized his winning short story “Death and the Taxman.” He and his Vol. 39 illustrator, Sarah Morrison, teamed up and published the novel with a successful Kickstarter campaign. Additionally, his story “A Properly Spiced Gingerbread” won the Critter’s Readers Poll for Best Magical Realism.
N. V. Haskell (Vol. 38) published her own collection of fantasy stories in Temporary Tales of Magic and Hope. She had a total of eight short story sales, six publications, and signed a three-book contract.
Storm Humbert (Vol. 36) formed the small press, Calendar of Fools, along with other winners from Vol. 36 & 37. They released their first anthology, see Zack Be above. Storm had six stories and one nonfiction essay published.
Ken Liu (Vol. 19) released Speaking Bones, Book Four of the Dandelion Dynasty.
Michael Michera (Vol. 33) served as concept designer for the feature film, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and the video game, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Wulf Moon (Vol. 35) won the Critters Annual Readers Poll in multiple categories for The Illustrated Super Secrets of Writing, Volume 1: Best Author, Best Nonfiction book, and Best Writers’ Research/Information/News Source.
T. R. Napper (Vol. 31) took home Australia’s Aurealis Award Best Science Fiction Novel award for 36 Streets.
Leah Ning (Vol. 36) is now managing editor at Apex Book Company and she had six new stories published.
Steve Pantazis (Vol. 31) published the first three books of his epic fantasy series, The Light of Darkness.
Dustin Panzino (Vol. 27) won Best in Show at Gen Con 2023. Patrick Rothfuss (Vol. 18) latest release The Narrow Road Between Desires is a New York Times bestseller. And the forty-first New York Times bestselling book from our Contest winners.
Elise Stephens (Vol. 35) published two short stories, “Common Speech” with Escape Pod, and “Two-Tone” in Stupefying Stories 25. Mike Jack Stoumbos (Vol. 38) edited and illustrated the anthology Murderbirds, released a new military sf novel Defenders Rise, and has had a number of new shorter works released, including a novelette in The Phoenix Initiative: First Missions and a stand-alone novella Murder on the Barge Inn.
Rebecca E. Treasure (Vol. 38) was named managing editor for Apex Magazine.
Mjke Wood (Vol. 25) released his novel The Oneiromancer of Mars in his Martian Dream series, and sold his fourth short story to Analog magazine.
Melissa Yuan-Innes (Vol. 15) won an Aurora Award for Best Poem/Song for “Rapunzel in the Desert” as published in On Spec Magazine, Issue 122.
Galaxy’s Edge published several of our winners in their last magazine issue #62: Kary English (Vol. 31), T. R. Napper (Vol. 31), Rebecca E. Treasure (Vol. 38), Storm Humbert (Vol. 36), Alan Smale (Vol. 13), Steven Lawson (Vol. 33), Auston Habershaw (Vol. 31), and Samantha Murray (Vol. 31).
Infected by Art Volume 11 included these winners and judges: Daniel Bitton (Vol. 36), Arthur Bowling (Vol. 36), Bruce Brenneise (Vol. 34), Jennifer Bruce (Vol. 37), Laura Diehl (Vol. 20), Lucas Durham (Vol. 29), Bob Eggleton, Isabel Gibney (Vol. 37), Alexander Gustafson (Vol. 35), Brian C. Hailes (Vol. 18), Ben Hill (Vol. 36), Nick Jizba (Vol. 38), Ven Locklear (Vol. 24), Dustin Panzino (Vol. 27), April Solomon (Vol. 39), Dan Watson (Vol. 37), and Jim Zaccaria (Vol. 38).
There are just so many accomplishments. It’s a real challenge to keep up with the 900 Contest winners.…
We’re looking ahead to a spectacular future!