NAACP Director Presents Award to L. Ron Hubbard Writing Contest

(PRLEAP.COM) LOS ANGELES, CA—Dr Sandra Thomas, State Director of the NAACP attended the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Awards Ceremony at the Athenaeum on the campus of the California Institute of Technology where she presented The Award of Excellence to Ms. Joni Labaqui, Director of the Writers and Illustrators Contests, on behalf of the NAACP state office “in recognition of 23 years of providing hope and encouragement to creative people of all ethnic backgrounds and so keeping their dreams alive for a better tomorrow.”

Additionally, Marcus Collins, a student currently attending the Pasadena Art Institute, who had won the ACT-SO visual art competition from the NAACP in 2004, was presented his trophy as one of 24 writer and illustrator winners out of a field of thousands who entered the contests.

Prior to the awards ceremony, the winners were flown in from as far away as France, the United Kingdom and the Ukraine to attend a week-long workshop taught by contest judges, each one an experienced professional in the field. There they provided sound advice based on hard-won experience, providing necessary tools for making careers out of writing and illustration.

The contests were conceived by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 with the express purpose of providing a means for aspiring artists to have a chance for their creative efforts to be seen. Since that time, there have been nearly 550 winners for both the writers and illustrators contests. Out of her respect for the contests, Octavia Butler, recipient of MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, wrote an article originally published in Writers of the Future Volume IX, Furor Scribendi, in which she provides her six vital elements to be a successful writer.

Every quarter, three writers and three illustrators are selected by a panel of leading authors and artists of science fiction and fantasy. With no entry fee and judging done on an anonymous basis, the criterion is strictly merit. Beside first time publication, benefits include more than $30,000 in cash prizes and royalties, a week-long workshop with top professionals of the genre as well as book signings, radio and TV interviews organized by the contest administrators to assist the winners to launch their careers.

For more information, including a free eBook written by Octavia Butler for Writers of the Future on the subject of writing, go to www.writersofthefuture.com/octavia.htm.

Marcus Collins is available for interview. Contact John Goodwin at jgoodwin@galaxypress.com.

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