Winners of Worldwide Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contest will Celebrate the 27th Year of the L. Ron Hubbard Awards

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The 27th anniversary of the L. Ron Hubbard Awards for winners of the internationally-acclaimed Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests will be held in Hollywood in the Blossom Room at the Roosevelt Hotel, home of the original Academy Awards ceremony, on Sunday, May 15th, it was announced today by contest organizers.

Celebrities and luminaries from around the world of science, science fiction and fantasy are expected to attend the gala event.

The theme of the evening will be "Celebrating 27 Years of Helping New Writers and Artists" to honor the 24 winners of the 2010-11 annual contest traveling from as far away as Western, Australia for one of the writer winners and South Africa for one of the illustrator winners. Other winners this year are from Victoria, Australia and across the United States.

"Cash prizes of $10,000.00 for the grand prize winners alone and inclusion in the 27th annual 'L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future' anthology (Galaxy Press, 2011) make this a very special night," Joni Labaqui, director of the contest said. Presentation of the Gold Awards for the year's best story and illustration will culminate the evening.

The Writers of the Future Contest and the companion anthology were created by L. Ron Hubbard 27 years ago to help discover new, aspiring writers of speculative fiction and give their best work a high-profile publishing showcase.

To date, the Contests have given rise to dozens of flourishing careers, including New York Times bestsellers Dave Wolverton (On My Way to Paradise), Sean Williams (Star Wars - The Force Unleashed), Karen Joy Fowler (Jane Austin Book Club), Patrick Rothfuss (Name of the Wind), Nancy Farmer (The Ear, the Eye and the Arm), Jo Beverley (A Lady's Secret), Lisa Smedman (Extinction) and Tim Myers (Basho and the Fox).

Also, bestsellers such as Dean Wesley Smith (Men In Black), contest winner turned judge, after pumping out over 100 novels, are part of the contests stream of success stories.

Winning authors from past years of the Writers of the Future Contest have sold over 700 novels and over 3,000 short stories in science fiction and fantasy genres. Several past winners have gone on to write in other genres, for the theatre, as well as for TV and movies. Winning illustrators have created artwork for 31 major motion pictures, numerous TV shows, over 500 book covers, covers and story illustrations in magazines, and industrial design.

The winners are chosen by a blue-ribbon panel of judges, famous authors in speculative fiction including; Robert Silverberg, Frederik Pohl, Anne McCaffrey, Tim Powers, Kevin J. Anderson, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Orson Scott Card, Robert J. Sawyer, Sean Williams, Dave Wolverton, Brian Herbert, K.D. Wentworth, Rebecca Moesta, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Gregory Benford, Doug Beason, Eric Kotani, Mike Resnick, Eric Flint, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith.

The just as impressive illustrator judge roster has included in its history: Frank Frazetta, Frank Kelly Freas, Cliff Nielsen, Vincent Di Fate, Bob Eggleton, Stephen Hickman, Stephan Martiniere, Diane and Leo Dillon, Ron Lindahn, Val Lakey Lindahn, Judith Miller, Stephen Youll, H.R.Van Dongen, Laura Brodian Freas and Sergey Poyarkov.

"The Contests' successes – most prominently defined by those writers who have 'made it' – have left a significant and meaningful mark on the speculative fiction genre and on other aspects of contemporary fiction and the arts," Labaqui added.

For information and seat reservations, please call Joni Labaqui at 323-466-3310. For more information on the contest please visit www.writersofthefuture.com.

SOURCE Writers and Illustrators of the Future