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Fiction Contest Finalists 1998
Issue date:
May 15-17, 1998
Student Fiction Contest 1998
1998 winners of our annual short story contest for ninth-through 12th-graders nationwide.
Grand prize winner
"Aces," by Jen Schuchman
Finalists stories, 1998
"Lake Tanganika," by Sarah Biber.
"Onward," by Brandon Christian.
"The Blond-Haired Chinese Girl," by Silvia Li.
"Heat Stored up for the Winter," by Kristen C. Roupenian.
"They call me Lágrima," by Betty Wong.
Related material
1997 Student Fiction Contest Winners
Educators, how to get your students involved
 en Schuchman, 18, of Greensburg, Pa., is the grand prize winner in USA WEEKEND's fourth annual Student Fiction Contest.
She receives a $2,000 scholarship for her story, "Aces," about how a boy and two girls are sustained by their friendship. The magazine will publish the story in July, culminating the 1998 Summer Fiction Series of original works by top authors such as Gloria Naylor and Dean Koontz.
Schuchman, who reads USA WEEKEND in the Greensburg Tribune-Review, was a finalist in last year's contest. A Greensburg Salem High senior, she credits her school's supportive English department. Her sponsoring teacher is Donna Walthour.
"Aces" was selected from among almost 5,500 stories submitted by ninth- through 12th-graders nationwide. Final judging was done by best-selling novelist Wally Lamb and Executive Editor Amy Eisman. Lamb was impressed by how real Schuchman's characters seemed. "Early into the story," he says, "I began to care about those people."
About the five finalists
Each of these students receives a $75 gift certificate for books or software. Sponsoring teachers get $50 gift certificates. - Sarah Biber, a senior at Blue Springs (Mo.) South High School and an Independence-Blue Springs Examiner reader. Teacher: Kathy Moran.
- Brandon Christian, a senior at West Orange High School, Winter Garden, Fla., and a Leesburg Commercial reader. Teacher: Irene Earls.
- Silvia Li, a sophomore at Sycamore High School, Cincinnati, and a Cincinnati Enquirer reader. Teacher: Melissa Wolfe-Izworski.
- Kristen Roupenian, a junior at Falmouth (Mass.) Academy and a Brockton Enterprise reader. Teacher: Eleanor Clark.
- Betty Wong, a sophomore at North Hollywood (Calif.) High School Highly Gifted Magnet and an L.A. Daily News reader. Teacher: Barbara Barnett.
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