Amit Dutta of Upper Hutt to Be Honored For Illustration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AMIT DUTTA OF UPPER HUTT TO BE HONORED
AS WINNER OF WORLDWIDE ILLUSTRATING CONTEST

Celebrities, Best-Selling Authors, Famous Illustrators to Fete
Newcomers at Festive Gala in Hollywood

HOLLYWOOD — Twelve winning writers and twelve illustrators from around the globe—including Amit Dutta of Upper Hutt—will be honored during the 31stAnnual L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards at the famed Wilshire Ebell Theatre, on Sunday, April 12th, 2015 beginning at 6:00 pm.

This year also marks the 75th anniversary of the Golden Pen Award, a writing award created by Hubbard in 1940 in Ketchikan, Alaska, and the forerunner to the internationally acclaimed Writers of the Future Contest.

Amit Dutta discovered the creative urge as a wee entity growing up in the African nation of Malawi. Science fiction and fantasy literature were the first to capture his imagination. Since nobody he asked seemed to think that art could actually be a career, he trotted off to university in Canada and focused on Astrophysics. It was very sci-fi, after all.

A series of events, otherwise known as life, left Amit entangled in what might loosely be called “a career in IT.” It led to him wondering where he had misplaced 12 of his years. They weren't in the fridge, and he dared not look under the bed. Amit moved to New Zealand where the slumbering creative phoenix finally erupted into the bleary-eyed, caffeine-fueled, solitary autodidactic artist he has become. Over three years he obsessively developed his skills and successfully destroyed his social life.

He quit his daily grazing at the cubicle farm in early 2015 to dedicate more time to his art. The automated mortgage payment glares at him in outright suspicion. Amit currently hermits himself in a remote bush valley north of Wellington. He feeds cat food to the family of eels living under the ford across the river. The cat isn't impressed.

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 $500 to $1,000. Their winning stories and illustrations will appear in the annual anthology L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers and Illustrators of the Future, Volume 31 (Galaxy Press, May 2015).

Participating in the ceremony will be best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson (Dune prequels), Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), 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), Dave Dorman (Star Wars artwork), who will all serve as presenters.

Throughout the Contests’ 31-year history, over 700 writers and illustrators have been recognized as winners. “What’s amazing to me is that a good 60 to 70% 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 (www.writersofthefuture.com) 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. The 348 past winners of the Writing Contest have published 838 novels and nearly 4,000 short stories. They have produced 27 New York Times bestsellers and their works have sold over 50 million copies.

The 276 past winners of the Illustrating Contest have produced over 4,500 illustrations, 356 comic books, graced 594 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 36 TV shows and 46 major movies.

For more information and to see the awards ceremony online, contact Carmen at MediaRelationsCarmen@gmail.com or go to www.writersofthefuture.com

oOo

© Scoop Media