L. Ron Hubbard Presents: Writers of the Future books in order

Reading order

The Writers of the Future contest was founded in 1983 by L. Ron Hubbard to identify and publish new science fiction and fantasy writers. Each year, the winning and placed stories are collected into an annual anthology volume. The contest has operated continuously since then and has published early work by a large number of writers who went on to significant careers in the genre.

Octavia E. Butler served as one of the contest’s judges for many years. Her involvement meant she was evaluating new talent rather than contributing original work — a different role than the one she plays in most of the collections associated with her name. As a judge, she represented a standard for what serious science fiction could do, and her participation was a mark of the contest’s ambitions.

The volumes themselves are broad anthologies of new short fiction, primarily in science fiction and fantasy, and vary considerably in tone and quality from year to year. Readers interested in where the contest fits in the history of genre publishing, or in Butler’s role as a supporter of emerging writers, will find the series more useful as a reference than as a reading experience organized around any single author’s vision.