The Author Quill Illustrators Ms. Josie Moore Illustrators Nathan Deiwert

Josie Moore grew up in the valley town of Westfield, Massachusetts with a voice that wouldn’t work and a brain filled to bursting.

Paranoid by the world and abandoned by those around her, she turned to art in her time of hiding. When she was scared, she wrote about it. When she cried, she drew comforting pictures. With the inability to pinpoint and process her own emotions, she used art and storytelling as her communication, turning her fear into something beautiful.

Nowadays, she can finally leave her bedroom, but never without a sketchbook by her side. She attends the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in hopes of getting her BFA in Illustration. She spends her days doodling elves, bears, and silly little faeries and nights writing, planning, and…hopefully writing some more. Finally having an outlet to put all her obsessive, creative energy, she dreams of one day showing even the deepest crevices of her mind with her odd love stories and twisted mysteries.

The Contest, one of the most prestigious writing and illustrating competitions in the world, is currently in its 43rd year and is judged by some of the premier names in speculative fiction.

The Writers of the Future Contest judges include, Tim Powers (author of On Stranger Tides), Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert (Dune prequel series), Robert J. Sawyer (The Oppenheimer Alternative), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn series, The Stormlight Archive), Larry Niven (Ringworld), Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), Nnedi Okorafor (Who Fears Death), Hugh Howey (Wool), and Katherine Kurtz (Deryni series) to name a few. Nathan Deiwert, an illustrator led by a desire to craft worlds, creates imaginative creatures and characters that coincide with one another. Deiwert is driven to come up with new ways to develop familiar concepts in the form of paintings, digital illustrations, and visual development. From fear-inducing entities to happy moments, he creates work with thought and explores new ideas.

For Deiwert, active research is a considerable portion of the process of the creation of his art; be it artistic influences past and present, anatomy or cultures. His favorite influences are presently Frank Frazetta, Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth and Maxfield Parrish.

The Writers of the Future Contest judges include Tim Powers (author of On Stranger Tides), Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert (Dune prequel series), Robert J. Sawyer (The Oppenheimer Alternative), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn series, The Stormlight Archive), Larry Niven (Ringworld), Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), Nnedi Okorafor (Who Fears Death), Hugh Howey (Wool), and Katherine Kurtz (Deryni series) to name a few.