The Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing (formerly the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing) was established by Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine and the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts in 1993 to promote the writing of science fiction and fantasy by college undergraduates. The first award was first given in 1994 at the annual Conference on the Fantastic.
The $500 award goes to the best unpublished and unsold science fiction or fantasy short story submitted by a full-time undergraduate college student. The winner and other finalists are invited to the IAFA annual Conference on the Fantastic in mid-March in Orlando, FL, and the winning story is published on the magazine’s website: http://www.Asimovs.com.
The award was co-founded by Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine Editor Sheila Williams and Western Colorado University professor and writer Dr. Rick Wilber and they are the judges for the award. The award is co-sponsored by Dell Magazines and the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts and supported by the Graduate Program in Creative Writing: Low-Residency MA/MFA in Genre Fiction at Western Colorado University. There is a $5 entry fee per story and a class-project group rate of $15. Students can submit their stories at www.dellaward.com.
The award’s page can be found at The Dell Award - Rules
For more information, contact Dr. Rick Wilber at rickwilber@tampabay.rr.com
Past Winners of the Dell Award
| Year | Author | Work |
| 2024 | Emma Kerkman | "Lolo's Last Run" |
| 2023 | Sam Wilson | "blooming beating hearts" |
| 2022 | Jack Hawkins | "Hellish Takeout" |
| 2021 | Jazmin Collins | "My Gardening Journal: Tales from a Psychic Gardener" |
| 2020 | Rona Wang | “Imitation Game” |
| 2019 | Ana Maria Curtis | “Military Sunset” |
| 2018 | Arthur Davis | “Happy? Sad?” |
| 2017 | Taimur Ahmad | “Noor” |
| 2016 | Rani Banjarian | “Lullabies in Arabic” |
| 2015 | Kayla Chronister | “How the Blood Spills” |
| 2014 | Rich Larson | “Nostalgia Calculator” |
| 2013 | Lara Donnelly | “To the Dogs” |
| 2012 | Rebekah Baldridge | “Superposition” |
| 2011 | Seth Dickinson | “The Immaculate Conception of Private Ritter” |
| 2010 | Rachel Sobel | “The Dead Star, the Satirist, and the Soldier” |
| 2009 | Josh Eure | “We Were Real” |
| 2008 | Stephen Leech | “Blank, White and Blue” |
| 2007 | Natty Bokenkamp | “The Uncanny Valley” |
| 2006 | Meghan Sinoff | “Shift” |
| 2005 | Anthony Ha | “Around the World” |
| 2004 | Anthony Ha | “Orbiting” |
| 2003 | Bryn Neuenschwander | “Calling into Science” |
| 2002 | Lena DeTar | “Making Waves” |
| 2001 | Mark Jacobsen | “Conquering Europa” |
| 2000 | Beth Adele Long | “Repeating Patterns” |
| 1999 | Marissa Lingen | “In the Gardens and the Graves” |
| 1998 | Emily Thornbury | “The Wormholes” |
| 1997 | David Kirtley | “Lest we Forget” |
| 1996 | Dylan Otto Krider | “He Believed in Probability” |
| 1995 | Shannon Fowler | “The Cinderella Project” |
| 1994 | Eric Choi | “Dedication” |