Tell Me Your Fantasy

Harvard has nurtured its share of literary luminaries, but if Ari Goelman is any indication, the neighbors down Mass. Ave. have been building up some serious competition.

Goelman, a second-year doctoral student at MIT, is living proof that the school is a breeding ground for the creative spirit. Lost on the Road, Goelman’s tale of a fairy slave, won the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest on his very first try. The contest is limited to unpublished writers of speculative fiction, which includes both science fiction and fantasy, and bears the illustrious name of Hubbard, prolific science fiction author and founder of Scientology. Winning submissions are published in an annual anthology.

Between working as an urban planner for the city of Vancouver and starting the city planning doctoral program at MIT, Goelman took a few months off to concentrate on his writing. “Eventually, I’d like to have time to research and teach and have time for the creative side,” says Goelman, who says he currently has very little time to write.

In August 2002, Goelman flew to Los Angeles and donned his tuxedo for the Writers of the Future award ceremony. “Having Sean Ashton—he played Sam in The Lord of the Rings—ask for your autograph was very entertaining,” he says. And though the awards ceremony took place in the Scientology building, Goelman claims that “L. Ron Hubbard’s award is quite separate from Scientology.”

Science fiction aficionados consider Battlefield Earth one of Hubbard’s best works. But Goelman hesitates to make an authoritative judgment, having not delved much into the Hubbard canon. “I read one a long time ago and it was fine,” he says delicately. “L. Ron Hubbard wrote in a very pulpy time.” Asked about his own literary tastes, Goelman mentions Kafka and Borges, and adds, “I thought Harry Potter was great.”