I've heard Writers of the Future mentioned a few times on EA (most recently on last week's Podcastle). I just did a bit of research to confirm what I thought I remembered, and I share my findings here with you:
The "Writers of the Future" contest was started by L. Ron Hubbard in the '80s. The books resulting from this contest used to be published by Bridge Publications; they are now published by Galaxy Press. Both imprints are essentially owned by the Church of Scientology (it's a bit more convoluted actually, but that's it in a nutshell), which means that purchasing any new copies of these books puts money into the Scientologist coffers.
If this bothers you, I suggest buying used... it's how I bought every Hubbard book in my library.