L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 38: The Best New SF & Fantasy of the Year

Leo & Diane Dillon are two of the most acclaimed illustrators of our time. They collaborated for more than five decades. Their long list of awards includes two Caldecott Medals, the NAACP Image Award, five Coretta Scott King Awards and Honors, four Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, and induction into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. Leo and Diane created award-winning picture books, book covers, magazines, and other art until Leo's death in 2012. Love and the Rocking Chair is their final collaboration. Diane Dillon lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Steven "S.M." Stirling is a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico. His hobbies are mostly related to the craft of writing. He loves history, anthropology, and archaeology, as well as interest in the sciences. Steven has published over 40 novels, at least 5 of which are New York Times bestsellers and he has won awards including the Dragon Award for his novel, Black Chamber. Steven has been a Writers of the Future Judge since 2021.

Nancy Kress is the author of thirty-four books, including twenty-six novels, four collections of short stories, and three books on writing. Her work has won six Nebulas, two Hugos, a Sturgeon, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. She writes frequently about genetic engineering; including the acclaimed science-fiction novel Beggars in Spain. Kress's fiction has been translated into Swedish, Danish, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish, Croatian, Chinese, Lithuanian, Romanian, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, Russian, and Klingon, none of which she can read. In addition to writing, Kress often teaches at various venues around the country and abroad, including a visiting lectureship at the University of Leipzig, a 2017 writing class in Beijing, and the annual intensive workshop TaosToolbox. Kress lives in Seattle with her husband, writer Jack Skillingstead, and Pippin, the world's most spoiled Chihuahua.

GREGORY BENFORD teaches at the University of California and lives in Irvine, California. Benford is a winner of the United Nations Medal for Literature, and the Nebula Award for his novel Timescape. In 1995 he received the Lord Prize for contributions to science. Benford conducts research in plasma turbulence theory and experimentation, and in astrophysics. He has published well over a hundred papers in fields of physics from condensed matter, particle physics, plasmas and mathematical physics, and several in biological conservation.

Stephannie Tallent is a 1989 West Point graduate. Since then she's served in the Army as a Military Intelligence officer, gotten a Zoology degree, went to vet school, worked as a small animal veterinarian, and designed and published knitting patterns and books.Throughout all that she's always wanted to be a writer, and she's finally put all her type A, soft-spoken, liberal, invisible middle-aged woman focus on that goal, writing everything from fantasy to science fiction to mysteries to romance.Check out her website at www.stephannietallent.com.

James Davies graduated from the University of Oxford in 2006, with a DPhil in social and medical anthropology. He is a reader in social anthropology and mental health at the University of Roehampton and a qualified psychotherapist. His books include The Making of Psychotherapists: An Anthropological Analysis and Cracked: Why Psychiatry Is Doing More Harm Than Good. He edited Emotions in the Field: The Psychology and Anthropology of Fieldwork Experience and The Sedated Society: The Causes and Harms of Our Psychiatric Drug Epidemic. He cofounded the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry, which is now secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence.

Lazarus Chernik is an experienced Creative Director, Brand Manager, and award-winning Designer with over twenty years of experience. His clients have included everyone from Fortune 100 giants to small businesses in need of reaching that next level. Using expert skills in all manner of print and online media, he has headed the creative departments for numerous agencies and corporations, including a Top 15 national advertising agency, a national retail chain, a national web development firm, a catalog retailer, and a retail goods manufacturer. He has been an instructor of design software and skills in corporate training environments and continuing education facilities. Lazarus Chernik has been an Illustrators of the Future judge since 2016.

David Hankins is an award-winning author who writes from the thriving cornfields of Iowa where he lives with his wife, daughter, and two dragons disguised as cats. His writing journey began in the oral tradition of convincing his daughter to Go To Sleep with inventive stories. That usually backfired. After years of Just One More Story, David began transcribing his midnight ramblings in an attempt to keep his storylines straight. Children are ruthless in identifying mistakes in fairy tales. David writes lighthearted speculative fiction because that's what he loves to read and-this is the important bit-there's not nearly enough humor in the world. He aims to change that, one story at a time. David devotes his time to his passions of writing, traveling, and finding new ways to pay his mortgage. You can find him at https: //davidhankins.com

With 19 New York Times bestsellers and more than 350 million copies of his works in circulation, L. Ron Hubbard is among the most enduring and widely read authors of our time. As a leading light of American Pulp Fiction through the 1930s and '40s, he is further among the most influential authors of the modern age. Indeed, from Ray Bradbury to Stephen King, there is scarcely a master of imaginative tales who has not paid tribute to L. Ron Hubbard. Then too, of course, there is all L. Ron Hubbard represents as the Founder of Dianetics and Scientology and thus the only major religion born in the 20th century.

Bob Eggleton is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror artist. Eggleton has been honored with the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist eight times, first winning in 1994. He also won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book in 2001 for his art book "Greetings From Earth". He has also won the Chesley Award for Artistic Achievement in 1999 and was the guest of honor at Chicon 2000.Eggleton's drawing and paintings cover a wide range of science fiction, fantasy, and horror topics, depicting space ships, alien worlds and inhabitants, dragons, vampires, and other fantasy creatures.

Well known for his colorful oil paintings, most often depicting strong women, Dan dos Santos' work spans a variety of genres, including advertising, comics, film and video games, but he is best known for his distinctive book cover work. He has worked for clients such as Disney, Universal Studios, Activision, Scholastic Books, The Greenwich Workshop, Penguin Books, Random House, UpperDeck, Wizards of the Coast, DC Comics, and many, many more. Dan has been the recipient of many awards. He is a 'Rhodes Family Scholarship' winner, a five time 'Hugo Award' Nominee for Best Artist, Jack Gauhan Award Winner, Chesley Award Winner, and has received both Gold and Silver Medals from 'Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art'. His illustrations have graced the #1 spot on the New York Times Best Seller list numerous times, and his covers can be seen in bookstores in dozens of countries around the world. Simply put, Dan dos Santos is one the most recognized artists in his field. With hundreds of book covers to his credit, his vision has helped shape what the Fantasy market is today.

Jody Lynn Nye lists her main career activity as "spoiling cats." When not engaged upon this worthy occupation, she writes fantasy and science fiction books and short stories. Since 1987 she has published over 40 books and more than 120 short stories. Among the novels Nye has written are her epic fantasy series The Dreamland, beginning with Waking In Dreamland, five contemporary humorous fantasies, Mythology 101, Mythology Abroad, Higher Mythology (the three collected by Meisha Merlin Publishing as Applied Mythology), Advanced Mythology, The Magic Touch, and three medical science fiction novels, Taylor's Ark, Medicine Show and The Lady and the Tiger. Strong Arm Tactics is a humorous military science fiction novel, the first of The Wolfe Pack series. Nye wrote The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, a non-fiction-style guide to the world of internationally bestselling author Anne McCaffrey's popular world. She also collaborated with Anne McCaffrey on four science fiction novels, The Death of Sleep, Crisis On Doona, Treaty At Doona and The Ship Who Won, and wrote a solo sequel to The Ship Who Won entitled The Ship Errant. Nye coauthored the Visual Guide to Xanth with bestselling fantasy author Piers Anthony, and edited an anthology of humorous stories about mothers in science fiction, fantasy, myth and legend, entitled Don't Forget Your Spacesuit, Dear! She wrote eight books with the late Robert Lynn Asprin, License Invoked, a contemporary fantasy set in New Orleans, and seven set in Asprin's Myth Adventures universe: Myth-Told Tales (anthology), Myth Alliances, Myth-Taken Identity, Class Dis-Mythed, Myth-Gotten Gains, Myth Chief, and Myth-Fortunes. After Asprin's passing, she published Myth-Quoted and Dragons Deal (Ace Books), third in Asprin's Dragons series. Her latest books are View From the Imperium (Baen Books), a humorous military SF novel, an e-collection of cat stories, Cats Triumphant (Event Horizon), Dragons Run (fourth in the Dragons series) and Launch Pad, an anthology of science fiction stories co-edited with Mike Brotherton. Over the last twenty or so years, Jody Lynn Nye has taught numerous writing workshops and participated on hundreds of panels covering the subjects of writing and being published at science-fiction conventions. She has spoken in schools and libraries around the north and northwest suburbs. In 2007 she taught fantasy writing at Columbia College Chicago. She also runs the two-day writers workshop at Dragon Con. She lives in the northwest suburbs of Atlanta, with her husband Bill Fawcett, a writer, game designer, military historian and book packager, and a black cat, Jeremy. Jody Lynn Nye became a Writers of the Future judge in 2016.

As a published Finalist at the inaugural Writers of the Future ceremonies in 1985, Dean Wesley Smith was the first person ever to receive a WotF Award, accepting his framed certificate from judges Dr. Gregory Benford, Roger Zelazny, Robert Silverberg and Algis Budrys. Smith has published far over a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds and hundreds of short stories across many genres. He has over eight million copies of his books in print and has been published in nine different countries. He has written many original novels in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller and romance, as well as books for television, movies, games and comics. He is also known for writing quality work very quickly and has written a large number of novels as a ghostwriter or under house names. With his wife (and fellow WotF judge) Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he wrote The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. Smith has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC and Dark Horse. Smith is an avid poker player and a former golf pro. With Rusch, he was also cofounder and publisher of Pulphouse Publishing (which earned them a World Fantasy Award), before editing for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books. At the moment he produces novels in four major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the old west, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the urban fantasy Ghost of a Chance series, and the superhero series starring Poker Boy. His monthly magazine, Smith's Monthly, consisting of only his own fiction, premiered in October 2013 and has not missed an issue yet, with over 70,000 words per issue, including a new and original novel every month. Dean Wesley Smith became a WotF judge in 2010.

Arthur has authored 100+ scientific publications, invented novel 3D drug design software, and shares the 2008 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award for the discovery of Sprycel, a new anti-cancer drug. He writes hard science fiction, fantasy and horror. His novel, Algorithm, which is a story about DNA and the purpose of humanity, garnered a 2010 Royal Palm Literary Award (RPLA) and was published by E-Lit Books in October, 2014. Many of his short stories have garnered honors including finalists in the 2011-2013 RPLA competitions, Honorable Mentions in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contests, and best short fiction in the 2012-2013 Preditors and Editors Readers Polls. He has completed Angela's Apple (Winner of RPLA 1st Place, Best Sci-Fi of 2014), a story of guardian angels that are not angels, forbidden love, and the secret fate of humankind. His current project is Henry The Last, a story about the last creature with a human brain, and what it means to be human in a post-apocalyptic world where nothing is what it seems to be. He lives in Florida with his wife Lidia, teaches college chemistry and happily wanders the beaches when not jousting with aliens.

Arthur Haywood is an illustrator and muralist. His work celebrates the wonder of stories. (He is the artist who painted the illustrious cover for An Old Fart and a Thousand Sentiments.) His paintings are seen on murals for the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, Summer of Soul film, Sprocket Mural Festival, his book "The Great Library" and Space and Time Magazine. He exhibits his paintings in Paris, New York, and Pennsylvania. Arthur is a reliable artist who completes commissions. Creating murals and illustrations to inspire others and engage youth in reading is his passion. He is focused on making murals for libraries and schools in addition to book covers.He earned a B.F.A in Illustration from The Maryland Institute College of Art, before furthering his study of classical drawing and painting at Cambridge Street Studios in Philadelphia and Grand Central Atelier in New York. He is a recipient of the 2020-2021 Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris. There he developed murals to inspire a love of learning and cultural appreciation. He worked with students at Lycée Paul Lapie, Ecollectif and André Malraux Elementary school to create murals depicting students of diverse origins reading and the stories that have engaged them.He is a recipient of the 2022 - 2023 Tulsa Artist Fellowship where he is continuing his series of paintings for schools to inspire reading.