In that spirit of L. Ron Hubbard’s legacy and luminous ambition, a vibrant gathering of writers and illustrators came together in Hollywood on April 10 to celebrate their debut among the world’s next wave of storytellers and artists.
The occasion was the 41st Annual Writers of the Future Awards and the 36th Annual Illustrators of the Future Awards—the planet’s longest-running competition devoted exclusively to science fiction and fantasy, arguably the most imaginative, haunting and genre-defying of all literary forms.
“A culture is as rich and as capable of surviving as it has imaginative artists.” —L. Ron Hubbard
Held at the resplendent Taglyan Complex on Vine Street—a boulevard etched into Hollywood lore and the Walk of Fame—the black-tie gala drew a capacity crowd of some 350 people, including more than 70 celebrities and honored guests, all there to applaud the winning creatives for their extraordinary storytelling and visual artistry. The night was a fitting tribute to those who work “continually to give tomorrow a new form,” as Mr. Hubbard memorably put it.
“Every single year, we unearth gems from across the globe—individuals who begin as dreamers and emerge as creators, shaping our cultural landscape,” said Gunhild Jacobs, mistress of ceremonies for the evening and Executive Director of Author Services, Inc., a Hollywood-based literary agency that develops, markets and publishes Mr. Hubbard’s fiction through Galaxy Press.
Since its inception in 1984, and the addition of the illustrators competition five years later, the contest has launched the careers of hundreds of artists and authors, many of whom now rank among the elite voices in speculative fiction, literature and art. Alumni have gone on to publish thousands of stories and novels, design covers for iconic books and magazines, and win nearly every major award in the field—from the Hugo and Nebula to even the Academy Awards.
Jacobs noted that their success is a reflection of Mr. Hubbard’s artistic philosophy: that creative voices, especially those just beginning, deserve a stage large enough for their dreams.
The contest is open only to emerging talent—writers who have not yet professionally published a novel and illustrators still awaiting their first breakthrough. Each year of the contest consists of four quarters during which writers and illustrators can turn in their stories and artwork, with submission periods beginning in October, January, April and July. A prestigious panel of judges selects three quarterly winners per category and their works are featured in an anthology titled L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future. To date, 41 volumes have been published, with the latest one released on April 22.
“I can’t wait to see the world you’ll build, the minds you’ll spark and the future you’ll make real.” —Dr. Sian “Leo” Proctor
Each winner also earns a coveted spot in a celebrated, weeklong workshop in Hollywood. Guided by seasoned science fiction authors from the Writers of the Future community like Orson Scott Card—whose sci-fi novels have found a wide audience among both adults and young readers—the experience concludes in the ultimate honor: a career-defining appearance at the awards gala, where their creative journeys take center stage.
And the crowning moment? The bestowal of the coveted Grand Prize Writer of the Future Award and Illustrator of the Future Award (also referred to as the Golden Pen and Golden Brush Awards) upon the most outstanding writer and illustrator—along with $5,000 in cash and a launchpad into the creative stratosphere.
This year’s Grand Prize Writer was Randyn C.J. Bartholomew, a Brooklyn, New York-based freelance penman “with a knack for blending science journalism and fiction,” in the words of contest judge Larry Niven, a noted sci-fi writer and recipient of the 2006 L. Ron Hubbard Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts.
Bartholomew, a digital minimalist who prefers to use a flip phone instead of a smart one, authored Ascii—a delightfully compelling tale that “explores the intriguing relationship between humans and technology,” as Niven put it in his speech at the gala, referring to a cheerful, self-driving car that picks up a reclusive writer—and along their unexpected journey must make a decision that could change the fate of humankind. Bartholomew’s story, as outlined in the media kit provided to reporters at the event, was sparked by his obsession with humanity’s evolving relationship to technology—specifically, how our machines are getting faster, smarter and eerily more human, while we’re still trying to catch up.
“This is a dream come true!” Bartholomew gushed after winning the Grand Prize Writer Award. “It’s hard to imagine; it’s wild!” The most important thing he learned during his workshop week, he added, “is that there’s a community of people out there who are all doing this, and that it’s not me or you sitting at our laptop alone anymore.”
Two trailblazers of imagination delivered the evening’s keynote addresses: Ron Clements, a legendary filmmaker whose stories have helped define generations of Disney animation, and Dr. Sian “Leo” Proctor, a geoscientist, poet and the first African-American woman to pilot an all-civilian space flight aboard SpaceX’s Inspiration4, launched into orbit on September 15, 2021.
Together, they embodied the gala’s central theme: The future is not inherited—it is imagined, drawn and built.
“In my old age now, I can see more clearly how the future isn’t just something that happens—it is something that you create,” Clements said in his speech at the gala, reflecting on a lifetime of storytelling and directing beloved classic films like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and The Princess and the Frog. Quoting Mr. Hubbard, he added: “A culture is as rich and as capable of surviving as it has imaginative artists.”
From her travels through space to her steps across the ballroom stage, Dr. Proctor brought the vastness of the cosmos down to earth: “I am so honored to stand before a room filled with storytellers, illustrators, dream-weavers and visionaries,” she said, adding: “I can’t wait to see the world you’ll build, the minds you’ll spark and the future you’ll make real.”
Halfway through the evening, Tim Powers, a seminal figure in speculative fiction and one of its most enduring voices, stepped up to the podium—his dry wit and awe for the genre casting a nostalgic spell over the gala. Moments after Author Services Inc. and Galaxy Press honored him with the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, Powers reflected on a five-decade journey spent writing stories that dwell just outside the borders of realism.
“I sold my first novel 50 years ago and, ever since, everything I’ve written has been that stuff we all read and write—science fiction and fantasy,” Powers said. “And I think everybody who writes that stuff has from time to time heard the question: ‘When are you going to write a real novel?’ By which of course they mean mainstream, which is to say, no ghosts, no aliens, no time travel.”
“I just can’t think of stories that restricted,” Powers added in his punchy six-minute speech, which was punctuated by enthusiastic applause. “If I tried to write a novel about an average guy in Pittsburgh who was worried about his job and his car payments, it wouldn’t be chapter two before he’d begin getting phone calls from his dead grandfather or a visit from his own self from an alternate universe.”
It is precisely such an aesthetic that positions science fiction at the center of the literature of ideas, according to Jody Lynn Nye, a veteran sci-fi author who has published over 200 short stories, authored or co-authored more than 50 books, edited the 41st volume of the Writers of the Future anthology and served as the coordinating judge for the contest. Science fiction, she told Freedom, is also steeped in the “literature of hope.”
Indeed, among the masters who showed us what Powers referred to in his speech as the “expanded landscape” of science fiction, L. Ron Hubbard occupies a hallowed place. “From a commitment to this kind of free-range fiction, he started this contest to find and publish and promote new writers of this science fiction and fantasy of ours,” Powers said, adding: “And over 40 years he has found any number of them.”
