Boerne native Jordan Smajstrla will be the first to tell you, “I didn’t see it coming” — but everyone around her, did.
Smajstrla, 22, was named the 2025 Grand Prize Illustrator winner at the 41st annual Writers of the Future and the 36th annual Illustrators of the Future L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards Gala.
In the genre of science fiction and fantasy, Randyn C.J. Bartholomew from Brooklyn, New York, was named the Grand Prize Writer winner, joining Smajstrla on stage at the April 10 event to receive their trophies and cash prizes.
“When I was announced at the final gala as the grand winner of the Golden Brush award, I think my heart nearly leaped out of my chest,” Smajstrla said. “I had never felt such suspense before.”
She said she felt like “the last to know” — upon first meeting the other illustrators and writers who won regional contests to advance to the Hollywood final, “they were all insisting I would be the one to win,” she said.
As she walked up to the stage and passed several of the other illustrators “who at that point felt like family,” she said, “each of them got in their ‘I told you so’s!’” All the writing and illustrating contestants spent a week in Hollywood, kept busy with workshops, interviews, activities and even a studio visit.
Smajstrla is currently a 4.0 senior at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, set to graduate with honors in June.
When first entering the competition, Smajstrla said she had no idea the magnitude of the contest.
“When I first got a call from Joni, the woman in charge of contacting all the winners, I was definitely more than a little confused, as I had no idea that Writers & Illustrators of the Future was this big of an event,” she recalled.
“I had been entering my portfolio into many smaller contests at the time and this one happened to be on the list. So when I received the call letting me know I was in the running to go to Hollywood, it was really shocking.”
Writers & Illustrators of the Future receives thousands of entries every quarter from around the world. A panel of judges slowly narrows entrants until just 12 are chosen for the finals.
“The second call telling me whether I made the final cut, came a week or so later,” Smajstrala said. “She gave a big, long anticipatory pause before telling me the great news.”
Smajstrla was able to enter only three pieces for consideration. But knowing the contest centered more on “sci-fi,” she was able to enter work that catered more toward that aesthetic.
Just as Bartholemew and Smajstrla won for writer and illustrator, writers and illustrators were paired up prior to the contest.
Smajstrla drew writer Robert F. Lowell — @ robertflowellauthor on Instagram — “because his writing style sounded like it would match nicely with my style of illustration, and they couldn’t have been more right. I adored his story ‘Kill Switch’ and was instantly inspired by it,” she said.
It all came to fruition when Smajstrla’s heard her name called and ascended the stage.
As the Golden Brush Award winner, Smajstrla received $5,000 and a trophy “that currently sits on my windowsill, casting rainbows over my desk.”
She said she plans to use the money “to invest back into my future as an artist, by getting a cintiq, much like those available to illustrators at SCAD.
“It’s been on my future to-do list for a while as something to work toward well after graduation,” she said, “but thanks to this, it doesn’t seem so far off anymore.”
Comment
Comments