The highlight of the ceremony will be the announcement of the year's two Grand Prize winners who will each receive $5,000. Quarterly winners also receive cash prizes from $500 to $1,000. Their winning stories and illustrations will appear in the annual anthology L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers and Illustrators of the Future, Volume 25 (Galaxy Press, 2009).
Participating in the ceremony will be best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Tim Powers and Sean Williams who will serve as presenters along with special presentations from Dr. Harry Kloor, of the upcoming movie Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey; and Don Hartsell, Managing Director of the World Air League and the World Sky Race (www.worldskyrace.com).
Throughout the contests' 25-year history, over 600 writers and illustrators have been honored. "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 Anderson (Dune prequels, The Edge of the World).
The Writers of the Future writing contest (www.writersofthefuture.com) was initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 to provide a means for aspiring writers to get a much-needed break--its winners have gone on to publish over 550 novels and 1,400 short stories, selling an impressive 31 million copies of their works combined. Due to the success of the Writing Contest, the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest was created in 1988.
"The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests have proven to be the most effective means for contestants to make their break in the publishing industry, an industry renowned for being closed to the newcomer," said Joni Labaqui, director of the contests. "That's why the Writing Contest and Illustrating Contest were created - because it's so hard to get published and there are so many talented people who give up on their dreams to see their works in print."
Source: Writers of the Future
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