Acclaimed L. Ron Hubbard Sci-Fi Award Goes To Fayetteville Writer

Staff Report

Twelve winning writers and twelve illustrators from around the globe — including Marina Lostetter of Fayetteville — will be honored during the 29th Annual L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards at the famed Wilshire Ebell Theatre, beginning at 6:30 p.m. April 14.

Marina Lostetter resides in Fayetteville with her husband, Alex. Originally from Oregon, she likes to think the open skies and dense forests of the Pacific Northwest are ideal for growing speculative fiction authors. After Marina graduated from Southern Oregon University with a history degree, she expressed a desire to do something crazy: write fiction for a living. Alex insisted that she jump right in, and Marina has been writing full time ever since.

This marks Marina’s third finalist story in the Writers of the Future Contest, as well as her second professional publication. Her work has also appeared in Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show and Mirror Shards: Volume. 2. You can visit her online at lostetter.net.

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 $1,000 to $500. Their winning stories and illustrations will appear in the annual anthology L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers and Illustrators of the Future, volume 29 (Galaxy Press, 2013).

Participating in the ceremony will be best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson (“Dune” prequels), Larry Niven (“Ringworld”), Jerry Pournelle (“A Mote in God’s Eye”), Tim Powers (“On Stranger Tides,” on which the fourth “Pirates of the Caribbean” film was based) and Robert Sawyer, referred to as Canada’s Dean of Science Fiction; as well as award winning artists Cliff Nielsen (Narnia book covers), Larry Elmore (Dungeons & Dragons book covers), Steven Hickman (over 400 book covers), who will all serve as presenters.

Throughout the Contests’ 29-year history, over 650 writers and illustrators have been recognized as winners. “What’s amazing to me is that a good 60 (percent) to 70 percent of winners go on to successful careers,” says New York Times’ best-selling author Anderson (“Dune” prequels, “Seven Suns” series). “You could call it ‘The American Idol’ for writers—long before there ever was such a show.”

The Writers of the Future writing contest (writersofthefuture.com) was initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 to provide a means for aspiring writers to get that much-needed break. Because of the success of the Writing Contest, the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest was created in 1988.

The intensive mentoring process has proven very successful. Past winners of the Writing Contest have published over 750 novels, 3,500 short stories and winners of the Illustrating Contest have had their art published in more than 500 books and magazines, with 4,500 illustrations, 350 comics and over 1.3 million art prints.

“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. “Well over six million fiction and nonfiction manuscripts make the rounds annually to find a publishing home, yet only 2,500 new science fiction and fantasy titles are published each year, and many of these are from already established authors.

“That’s why these contests 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.”

For more information, contact Mike Quint at MediaRelationsMike@gmail.com or go to writersofthefuture.com or facebook.com/WritersAndIllustratorsOfTheFuture

To see the awards ceremony online, go to youtube.com/writersofthefuture.