Judge Kevin J. Anderson (right) and 1997 grand-prize winner Morgan Burke present the 1998 L. Ron Hubbard Gold Award to Brian Wightman for the Writers of the Future Contest Story of the Year.

While expectations for such an event were high, no one really knew what to expect. There had never been a quarterly contest offering cash prizes for new writers of speculative fiction as judged by the genre’s most accomplished professionals. And it wasn’t certain who would turn up at an awards event.

But as Ron foresaw, a writing contest, bringing the standard bearers of speculative fiction together with the aspirants of the genre’s next generation of writers, would quickly become the premier competition for new writers in the world. And as for the awards ceremony, the judges and the winners wouldn’t have missed it. Chasen’s was packed with luminaries of the science fiction and fantasy field who came out to congratulate the winning writers.

	ASI Senior Vice President for Public Relations, Joni Labaqui, and judge Frank Kelly-Freas present the L. Ron Hubbard Gold Award for the Illustration of the Year to Paul Marquis.

The success of that premier event became an omen for the future. In the years that followed, the contest continued to grow. This expansion is reflected in the history of the awards ceremonies, which have been held in such venues as the United Nations, the World Trade Center, the National Archives of the United States, at the American Booksellers Association Convention (now known as the BookExpo) and the Houston and Kennedy Space Centers.