L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest
This is the most lucrative, longest-running and best-known contest in the sff genre. It’s free to enter, runs four times a year and on top of the generous prize money, winners also receive professional-level payment to appear in the annual anthology. Oh, and there’s the all-expenses-paid trip for a free week-long workshop with some of the biggest writers in the business. Workshop lectures cover advanced writing techniques and media relations training.

Clarion (East) Writers’ Workshop
Clarion is a 6-week workshop held at UC San Diego in annually each summer. It’s specifically aimed at science fiction/fantasy/speculative fiction in the short story form. It’s a prestigious workshop, but it’s expensive and pretty intense. But for a lot of people, the positive impact it has on developing writing skills is more than worth the cost of attending. Check out the Clarion site for more details.

Clarion West Writers’ Workshop
I will admit to a little bias here. I attended Clarion East, and I’ve never met a West attendee. The workshops are both run in the same format at about the same time of year, but with different instructors and Clarion West is held in Seattle.

Critters Online Workshop
This one is free and it’s open to anybody. If you want to get feedback from fellow writers on your stories and there aren’t enough locally available sff and horror writers in your area to form your own workshop, this is the next best thing. It’s well organized and well run.

Ralan Conley’s Webstravaganza
This is a very up-to-date and detailed list of markets for all kinds of speculative fiction.

Odyssey Writers Workshop
I attended this one. If I had to point to one thing that turned me into a professional writer, it would be this workshop. Not for the thin-skinned, the narrow-minded, or the faint of heart.

Writers

Leslie Brown: Fellow Canadian, scientist and up-and-coming sf author

Lee Beavington: Biologist and sf author.

Mike Rimar: Fellow Canadian, Writers of the Future finalist (soon to be winner). His love of slapstick is only exceeded by his love of blue cheese.

Illustrators

Kim Feigenbaum: She created the incredible illustration for my short story, “The Bone Fisher’s Apprentice”. Kim was a winner in the 2005 Illustrators of the Future Contest and her illustration appears in the Writers of the Future Volume 22 anthology alongside my story.

Stephanie Pui-Mun Law: She created the illustrations for my short story, “The Pear Thief” in the anthology Fantastical Visions III published by Fantasist Enterprises.