Eric Williams, Illustrators of the Future Contest 1997 grand prize winner, holding high his L. Ron Hubbard Gold Award.

Kennedy Space Center Hosts 13th Annual L. Ron Hubbard Writers & Illustrators of the Future Achievement Awards

n February 1985, approximately one year after L. Ron Hubbard created a “Writers’ Award Contest” to discover, acknowledge and eventually publish talented new writers of speculative fiction, the first awards ceremony was held at the legendary Chasen’s Restaurant in Beverly Hills, California.

From its inception, the contest attracted a flood of entrants and the quality of the winning stories exceeded all expectations. But it was the awards ceremony that brought everyone together for the first time—winners, judges, SF celebrities and the staff of Author Services, Inc. (ASI), who administer the contest on behalf of LRH. Only then, after meeting the new writers and observing the effect that winning the contest had on them, was it possible to get a sense of how great an impact the contest could have on the future of science fiction and fantasy.

The first achievement awards consisted of the announcement of the winners, the presentation of awards by judges and the release of the first L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future anthology of winning stories. That format set a precedent which has been followed and expanded on for thirteen years.