Twelve winning writers and 12 illustrators from around the globe, including Anh Le of Maryville, will be honored during the 36th Annual L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards at the Taglyan Complex, Hollywood, CA, on Friday, April 3.

Anh Le was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 1998. He and his parents, came to Maryville, from Vietnam in 2007. Le graduated from Maryville High School in 2016 and is a senior student at the Kansas City Art Institute studying illustration. His parents, Mai Nguyen and Hieu Le live in Maryville and are the owners of Euphoria Nails.

Le is a winner in the Illustrator of the Future contest and will be attending a week-long professional workshop, an awards event and his art will be published in an anthology, “L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 36.”

“High school taught me a lot about time management, writing papers and preparing for tests,” said Le. “All of these things really helped me with juggling so many project deadlines and classes within the Art Institute.”

He also noted, “The art program at Maryville High also allowed me to experiment with what I love to draw and it really guided me towards the direction that I want to take as an illustrator.”

Ever since Le can remember, he loved drawing and creating fantastical characters and monsters from his imagination. He didn’t even have a conception of what art was, he was just creating whatever came to mind. His love eventually evolved into a passion to become a concept artist and illustrator.

Anh started his journey with complex colored pencil and marker drawings but was introduced to digital painting several years ago and hasn’t been able to stop since then. His objective is to immerse viewers in his breathtaking worlds and his own unique view of visual development for films, games and animations.

Le was the Missouri winner of the Doodle4Google contest in 2016.

“I came to Maryville from Vietnam in 2007 and I wouldn’t be where I am without all the support and encourage from my friends, teachers, and parents. I just want to thank everyone for believing in me,” said Le.

The highlight of the ceremony will be the announcement of the year’s two grand prize winners who will each receive $5,000. Quarterly winners also receive cash prizes from $1,000 to $500. Their winning stories and illustrations will appear in the annual anthology.

Participating in the ceremony will be best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson, “Dune” prequel series; Orson Scott Card, “Ender’s Game;” Eric Flint,”1632;” Larry Niven, “Ringworld;” Tim Powers, “On Stranger Tides,” which “Pirates of the Caribbean IV” was based on; Brandon Sanderson, “Mistborn” series, “Stormlight Archive;” and Robert J. Sawyer, referred to as Canada’s Dean of Science Fiction; as well as award-winning artists Bob Eggleton, 11 Chesley Awards and seven Hugo Awards; Larry Elmore,”Dungeons & Dragons” book covers; Rob Prior, art for “Spawn,” Heavy Metal comics and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer;” Ciruelo, “Eragon Coloring Book” all of whom will serve as presenters.

The 358 past winners of the Illustrator of the Future contest have produced over 6,000 illustrations, 360 comic books, graced 624 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 68 TV shows and 40 major movies.

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