Twelve winning writers and 12 illustrators from around the globe — including Shannon Peavey of Kirkland — will be honored during the 29th Annual L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards at the famed Wilshire Ebell Theatre, on Sunday, April 14, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Peavey was born and raised in Kirkland. The oldest of three girls, she mostly used her vivid imagination to terrify her siblings: telling them that she’d been replaced by an evil twin from an alternate dimension, or that eating crabapples gave a person magical powers. They have since forgiven her.
After receiving a degree in English from Mount Holyoke College, she returned to the Pacific Northwest and began writing in earnest. She tries to bring the unique flavor of the west coast, its history and unexplored places, to her writing.
Peavey particularly credits Robin McKinley and Lloyd Alexander for instilling in her an appreciation for strong heroines, vivid new worlds, and beautiful words.
When not writing, she works as a horse trainer and continually attempts mastery of the piano (so far, the piano is winning). Her Writers of the Future win is her first published work.
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, which Pirates of the Caribbean IV was based on) 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 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 was initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 to provide a means for aspiring writers to get that much-needed break. Due to 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 non-fiction 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, visit www.writersofthefuture.com.
To see the awards ceremony online, go to www.youtube.com/writersofthefuture
