I was so impressed with how many amazing young writers entered my Mars Awakens Short Story competition!

It takes guts and commitment to write something and send it through, and I’m really proud of everyone who entered their work.

I had so many awesome takes on Martian moons and aliens, friendships and battles, magic and science. Congratulations to you all! Obviously, I had to pick one winner – and this was seriously hard, and required several re-reads of my favourite stories – but I managed it!

And the winner is …

Alice W. (11) for her clever and thought-provoking story ‘The Moons of Mars: Fear of Law, Dread of Anarchy’.

This story really got to me. It’s a “grass is greener on the other side” kind of tale of law-heavy Deimos and lawless Phobos, and I thought it was excellent. Clever reveals of the world and the (alien) characters, and a nifty circular storyline. Well done Alice! Your name will be gifted to a character in the Mars Awakens sequel, out May 2023.

Special mentions go to Amelia, Feiying, Grayson, Maïwenn, Matthew, Oliver, Reif and Troy for writing stories that I really loved as well. And well done again to everyone who submitted their work.

Keep writing all of you, the future of stories is safe in your hands 🙂

HM