The grand prize winners of the 25th Annual Writers of the Future Award and the 20th Illustrators of the Future Award were announced in a ceremony Saturday night at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. And tying in to history, it was in the same room where the first Academy Awards were handed out. During the same ceremony, all the past year’s quarterly winners also received their trophies and cash prizes.
The writer grand prize winner is Emery Huang, of Orlando, Florida, who wrote “Garden of Tian Zi”. The illustrators grand prize winner is Oleksandra Barysheva, a native of Ukraine who now lives in New Jersey. The winners are pictured at right with (from left to right) actress Sophia Milos (a presenter), Huang, John Goodwin (president of Galaxy Press), Barysheva, and actor Dion Graham (a presenter).
The year’s quarterly winners were also recognized at the ceremony. The writers are ranked each quarter, the illustrators are not. The quarterly winners were:
First Quarter Writers: Matthew Rotundo (Omaha, Nebraska), first place. Gary Kloster (Braham, Minnesota), second place. Fiona Lehn (Vancouver, British Columbia), third place.
Second Quarter Writers: , Donald Mead (Bloomington, Illinois), first place. Mike Wood (Wirral, England), second place. Gra Linnaea (Eugene, Oregon), third place.
Third Quarter Writrers: Jordan Lapp (Coquitlam, British Columbia), first place. C.L. Holland (Anglessey, United Kingdom), second place. Krista Hoeppner Leahy (Brooklyn, New York), third place.
Fourth Quarter Writers: Emery Huang (Orlando, Florida), first place. Heather McDougal (Davenport, California), second place. Schon Zwakman (Cottage Grove, Minnesota), third place.
First Quarter Illustrators: Oleksandra Barysheva (Matawan, New Jersey), A.R. Stone (Eugene, Oregon), and Tobias Anson Fruge (Mesa, Arizona).
Second Quarter Illustrators: Mark Payton (Colorado Springs, Colorado), Joshua Stewart (Rexburg, Idaho), and Aaron Anderson (Saratosa Springs, Utah).
Third Quarter Illustrators: Douglas Bosley (Bellingham, Washington), Evan Jensen (Annapolis, Maryland), and Ryan Behrens (Olympia, Washington).
Fourth Quarter Illustrators: Jamie Luhn (Myersville, Maryland), Luke Eidenschnik (St. Joseph, Minnesota), and Brianne Hills (Billerica, Massachusetts).
Prior to the awards ceremony, the winners were flown in from as far away as the UK to attend a week-long workshop taught by contest judges—including Kevin J. Anderson, Sean Williams, and Stephen Hickman—each one an experienced professional in the field providing sound advice based on hard-won experience.
Barysheva, who was an eleventh grade student at Matawan Regional High School, was one of 12 winners of the 2007/08 Heinz Ketchup Creativity contest, designing a ketchup packet.
The quarterly writing contest series was established in 1983, for new authors, offering cash prizes of up to $5,000. Resnick joins a team of 16 judges, which includes: Kevin J. Anderson, Doug Beason, Gregory Benford, Orson Scott Card, Brian Herbert, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Yoji Kondo (aka Eric Kotani), Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Frederik Pohl, Tim Powers, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Silverberg, K.D. Wentworth, and Dave Wolverton. Hoffman, Wentworth, and Wolvertson were contest winners before becoming judges. The quarterly illustrators contest was established in 1988. The judges of that contest include: Vincent Di Fate, Leo & Diane Dillon, Bob Eggleton, Frank Frazetta, Laura Brodian Freas, Stephen Hickman, Ron & Val Lindahn, Judith Miller, Stephan Martiniere, Cliff Nielsen, Sergey Poyarkov, H.R. Van Dongen, and Stephen Youll.
Related articles previously published on SFScope:
Writers & Illustrators of the Future workshop blog, ceremony and signing details (27 August 2009)
Mike Resnick is the newest WotF judge (21 August 2009)