Former South Lake Tahoe resident and LTCC alumnus winner in international writing contest

Former South Lake Tahoe resident and Lake Tahoe Community College graduate, Ryan Row (pen name: Alan Wor) has been officially announced as a winner in the "Writers of the Future" contest sponsored by L. Ron Hubbard. The contest, one of the most prestigious writing competitions, is in its 32nd year and is judged by some of the premier names in speculative fiction.

Row was chosen from a group of 8 finalists with the win earning him a cash prize, a trip to Hollywood for a week long intensive workshop, an Oscar-style awards ceremony which regularly has over one thousand attendees as well as having his winning short story published in the annual bestseller, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 32.

Ryan grew up in South Lake Tahoe and graduated from Lake Tahoe Community College with a Liberal Arts degree. He currently lives in Oakland and is a student at San Francisco State University where he's working on his Bachelor's in English with a concentration in creative writing. He'll graduate this May.

The Writers of the Future contest judges include, Tim Powers, author of On Stranger Tides, Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert, Dune, Robert J. Sawyer Flash Forward, Robert Silverberg, Sailing to Byzantium, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, A Mote in God's Eye, Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game, and Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death, to name a few.

L. Ron Hubbard created The Writers of the Future writing contest in 1983 to provide a means for aspiring writers of speculative fiction 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 368 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 298 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.