Founding Chairman of Challenger Center for Space Education is Keynote Speaker at Writers of the Future Awards Ceremony

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- June Scobee Rodgers, Founding Chairman of Challenger Center for Space Science Education, will deliver the keynote address to winners of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contest, the Contest judges and several hundred attending guests this Saturday night at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The Challenger Centers have the purpose to carry on the educational mission to utilize the excitement of space to inspire and motivate our nation's school children to take interest in mathematics, science and technology. Scobee Rodgers will address the evening's attendees on the vital role played by writers and illustrators of science fiction as the dreamers of a new tomorrow which will inspire the next generation of scientists.

It is not only as the founding Chairman of the Challenger Space Centers that she will be addressing the audience. She is also a published author. And, as the 25th anniversary approaches of the Challenger 51-L Teacher in Space mission, commanded by her late husband Astronaut Dick Scobee, she says that she is pleased to launch a new project, ''A series of novels that I developed with Writers of the Future judges Rebecca Moesta and Kevin J. Anderson, called Star Challengers.''

The highlight of the ceremony will be the announcement of the year's two Grand Prize winners who will each receive $5,000 and release of the annual anthology L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers and Illustrators of the Future, Volume 26 (Galaxy Press, 2010). Also being released is a special coffee table book edition of L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future: The First 25 Years, a photographic retrospective of the 25 years of the contest and containing over 1,000 images.

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 a much-needed break -- its winners have gone on to sell an impressive 31 million copies of their works combined. Due to the success of the Writing Contest, the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest was created in 1988.

For more information about the award or the ceremony, go to http://www.writersofthefuture.com. For reservations contact Joni Labaqui at 323-466-3310 or [email protected]. All media must RSVP.

SOURCE Writers of the Future