2025 • Volume 41
On the evening of Thursday, April 10, 2025, 350 guests were gathered at the Taglyan Cultural Complex in Hollywood, California, for the Oscar-like gala celebrating over four decades of winners of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future, now totaling 988 from 51 countries.
The cover artwork illustrated by Illustrators of the Future Contest Judge Craig Elliott, entitled Creature of the Storm, inspired the story “Under False Colours,” written by Writers of the Future Contest Judge Sean Williams. Voice actors Jim, Tamra, Taylor Meskimen, and Kirby Heyborne recorded the audiobook for Volume 41.
United Public Radio Network broadcast this year’s awards show to over 366,000 viewers on Roku and Amazon Firestick, and over 1.7 million on the live radio broadcast, and with re-airs has now reached over 7.1 million in 154 countries.
The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Workshops were held once again at Author Services.
THE GRAND PRIZE WINNERS
Randyn C. J. Bartholomew with his story “Ascii,” was named the 2025 Grand Prize Golden Pen Writer Winner, and Jordan Smajstrla with her illustration of the story “Kill Switch,” from Boerne, TX, was named the 2025 Illustrator Grand Prize Golden Brush Winner.
ACCOLADES
In celebration of forty years of nurturing Writers of the Future, we received 122 Proclamations and Letters of Recognition from State and City Officials in areas where we have had past winners, including from the Governor of New Jersey and Governor of Arkansas.
US Senator for New York, Charles E. Schumer, had a Flag flown over the United States Capitol on April 8, 2024, in honor of L. Ron Hubbard—Writers of the Future Week.
The Contests also received awards from Locus magazine, FanX, Costa Rica Mayor of Oreamuno Award, and Dragon Con.
The co-founder of Dragon Con, Pat Henry, attended the gala celebration and presented the Honorary Dragon Award. He said in part, “Much like L. Ron Hubbard, I am a gardener. My garden is smaller. I nurture plants to the best of my ability. I plant food for the neighborhood. Mr. Hubbard’s garden is the entire planet.”
We received thirty-seven Letters of Congratulations such as this from Tom Doherty, the Founder and Chairman of Tor Publishing, “Knowing and having worked with so many of the authors involved, I would like to say Writers of the Future; a gift by L. Ron Hubbard to that future, has been carried forward by some of the finest talent in our field.”
And this from New York Times bestselling author of the Silo series, Hugh Howey, “It’s a contest that’s not over the hill—it is on the rise. It deserves a mid-life congratulations. I look forward to seeing how far it can climb, knowing that it will touch countless more writers and hopefully outlast us all.”
Snapshot from 2025
Year in the Contests
Contest Growth
This volume represents the forty-one years of the Writers’ Contest and thirty-six years of the Illustrators’ Contest. Both Contests continue to expand breaking all records of annual entries.
Winners from this year’s competitions hailed from five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Awards for the Contest and Anthology
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 40 won the Gold Award for the New York City Big Book Awards, for Best Anthology.
The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Podcast won the Gold award for the eLit Book Awards in the Podcast—Interview/Author Hosted Format. It was also nominated for finalist in three categories of the Podcast Awards: The People’s Choice. The categories are: 1) Arts, 2) Education, and 3) Storyteller/Drama.
Notable Accomplishments From Alumni and Judges
Here is a selection of the many accomplishments and awards won by our Contest judges and winners.
Judges
Nancy Kress was the Literary Guest of Honor at Dragon Con in Atlanta.
Larry Niven was Author Guest of Honor at the 50th Anniversary of Los Con Science Fiction convention in Los Angeles.
Jody Lynn Nye was Guest of Honor at Congregate in Winston-Salem, at Gary Con in Lake Geneva, and Special Guest at Windy Con 50th Anniversary in Chicago.
Laura Freas Beraha was the Artist Guest of Honor at the 50th Anniversary of Los Con Science Fiction convention in Los Angeles.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch won a Best Novelette Asimov’s Science Fiction Readers’ Award for “The Nameless Dead.”
Tim Powers won an Inkpot award at San Diego Comic Con.
Craig Elliott won Bronze in the Infected by Art Volume 12 Digital / Photoshop category for Offworld Encounter.
Alumni
Chris Arias (Volume 39) from Costa Rica won the Palacio Municipal Award.
Zack Be (Volume 36) won the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award in 2024 for his story “Locus of Control.”
F. J. Bergmann (Volume 36) was awarded the title of the 2024 Grand Master from the Science Fiction Poetry of Association. She also won third place in the Dwarf Stars Award of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association for “Nikola Tesla.”
Jennifer Bruce (Volume 37) won the two-week Finley’s View Farm Artist Residency for 2024.
Erik Bundy (Volume 34) won both the Global Book Award and the Paris Book Awards for his medieval mystery The Plowman’s Plight.
Laurance Davis (Volume 39) won the Florida Writers Association 2024 Royal Palm Literary Award for Published Young Adult Novels for his book The Dead Can Be Stubborn.
Quintin Gleim (Volume 34) won Infected by Art Volume 12 5th Place: Grand Prize plus Gold in the Digital / Photoshop category for Exsanguinator Cavalry.
David Hankins (Volume 39) won a Critters Readers’ Poll for Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story for “Death and the Taxman,” which was also his winning story in Volume 39. His novelized version, Death and the Taxman, won the 2024 Book of the Year for Humor/Comedy/Satire from the Independent Author Network.
Stephen Kotowych (Volume 23) won an Aurora Award for Best Related Work as editor for Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume One.
Ven Locklear (Volume 16) won Honorable Mention in the Infected by Art Volume 12 Digital / Photoshop category for Dreamwalker.
Karawynn Long (Volume 9) won a Best Short Story Asimov’s Science Fiction Readers’ Award for “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers.”
Wulf Moon won a Best of Year Award in the Critters Annual Readers Poll, including Best Nonfiction Book for How to Write a Howling Good Story.
Anthony Morovian (Volume 34) won the two-week Finley’s View Farm Artist Residency for 2024.
Sarah Morrison (Volume 39) was the Artist Guest of Honor at Arisia Con in Boston. She also received a Judge’s Choice award for her cover art of Death and the Taxman at the Boskone Science Fiction and Fantasy convention.
Scot Noel (Volume 6) won the SciFidea Dyson Sphere Contest for “The Eight Pillars of Void and Future.”
Brittany Rainsdon (Volume 38) won the SciFidea Dyson Sphere Contest for “A Forbidden Shade of Green.”
Omar Rayyan (Volume 8) won a Chesley Award for Best Interior Illustration for his work on Animal Farm.
Brian Trent (Volume 29) won the SciFidea Dyson Sphere Contest for “Watchman, What of the Night?”
Mary Turzillo (Volume 4) won the Analog Readers’ Poll Award for Best Poem, “How to Conquer Gravity.”
Elizabeth Wein (Volume 9) won Best Young Adult Novel in the International Thriller Writers Award for Stateless.
Frank Wu (Volume 16) and coauthor Jay Werkheiser won the Analog Readers’ Poll Award for Best Novella for his story “Poison.”
There were just so MANY novels, short stories, and art published this past year from our judges and winners, we’ve limited this list to awards won and guest of honor appearances. For a more complete list, go to Year in Review for Writers & Illustrators of the Future for 2024.