Princess of Mars Contest Winners

B.A.W.L. Contests...................................................................................................

The Bay Area Writers League is sponsoring this contest to honor the memory of Eleta Malewitz, past member of both B.A.W.L. and the Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society. Due to her varied interests in writing and astronomy, entry contents must incorporate an Outer Space theme.

Eleta, Princess of Mars

Eleta was a resident of Clear Lake since February 1, 1974. She worked in the Aerospace community as a programmer. She thought and wrote in computer languages. With so much talent in languages, it was no surprise that she took to fiction writing like she took to computer programming.

Eleta took several writing classes and she realized she enjoyed writing. Eleta eventually entered and won writing contests.

She joined B.A.W.L. and, as she was wont to do, she got involved, became active and eventually served as VP for Programs. She was a "take charge and get things done behind the scenes" person.

Her other passion was astronomy. She was very active in the Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society, holding offices as Newsletter Editor, VP and President. In honor of her immeasurable contributions to JSCAS, the President of JSCAS appointed her "Princess of Mars", after the character in Alexei N. Tolstoy's novel Aelita .

Eleta fought a hard battle against cancer, and, sadly, succumbed on May 10, 2005, one day short of her 56th birthday.

Final Ranking of Awards for 2006:

The winners of the BAWL Princess of Mars Short Fiction Contest:
1st Place – John A. Turley for History’s Humble Heroes
2nd Place – Darren Moore for The Knotted Post
3rd Place – Joan Cobb for Little Star

The winners of the BAWL Princess of Mars Poetry Contest:
1st Place – Greg Beatty for Frosts For Other Planets
2nd Place – Greg Beatty for Relativity and Reason
3rd Place – Barbara Greuner for Red Planet Dreams

If you are not a finalist, know that you are in good company. There were many exceptional entries, but unfortunately, only three in each category could be finalists.

We thank everyone for their creativity and wish you the best of luck in future contests.

Please email con@bawl.org with any questions.