Matt finishes atthe top to winwriters' award

A Horncastle writer has won 5,000 US dollars after taking top spot in an international science fiction and fantasy writing contest.
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Matt Dovey, 31, has been named Grand Prize-winning writer in this year’s L Ron Hubbard’s Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contest.

The 32nd annual achievement awards ceremony for the competition was held at Los Angeles’ Wilshire Ebell Theatre.

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Matt, who lives in Horncastle with his wife and three children, won for his work ‘Squalor and Sympathy’.

In addition to $5,000, he also won the prestigious Golden Pen award.

Matt’s winning work is a tale of an alternate industrial revolution, where the factories are powered by the magic of deprivation, meaning the working class are deliberately kept oppressed and poor, to take advantage of them.

Argentinian artist Adrian Massaro, who provided an illustration for Matt’s work, was named Grand Prize-winning illustrator.

He received $5,000 and the Golden Brush award.

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It is the first time in the contest’s 32-year history that the Grand Prize-winning writer and illustrator have won for the same text.

Matt, who works at Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School, said: “Moments like this are unique and life-defining.”

He said he was unsure how he would spend the prize money, explaining: “I honestly hadn’t anticipated winning it.”

He is planning to take his wife away ‘somewhere nice’ after she spent a week-and-a-half taking care of their children so he could attend the awards!

Matt’s award winning work will now feature in the 32nd volume of L. Ron Hubbard presents: ‘Writers of the Future.’