Student's Story Wins Award in Contest
By TONY SPINELLI
Connecticut Post Online
May 5, 2007

MONROE — Five years ago, when Lindsay Kirkham was 10, she became a fan of British author J.K. Rowling's series about young wizard "Harry Potter." The books struck a magical literary chord with the youngster.
"I wanted to start writing when I read 'Harry Potter' books," said Kirkham, now 15 and a sophomore at Masuk High School.

"It's a blend of the real and the unreal," she said of the hugely popular novels.

Blending the believable with the imaginary, which is the heart of fiction, has been good for Lindsay, who has grown into an award-winning young writer, according to Andy Thibault, chairman of the Connecticut State University Young Writers Trust.

Thibault, based in Litchfield, said Kirkham's 11-page, double-spaced essay, "Grandma's Flowers," has won the award for best prose in Fairfield County from the non-profit trust dedicated to encouraging young writers.

Kirkham won a check for $1,000 for her efforts, Thibault said. More importantly, she has been recognized by the literary community for exhibiting real talent, with the promise of a future career in writing, should she decide to pursue it.

"It's about affirmation," Thibault said of the award.

The student's story, which she said is entirely fictional and not based on anything from her life, is the story of a girl who goes to live with her grandmother after her parents are killed by a drunk driver.

The story is written in the first person, and explains how the girl faces the looming death of her grandmother, who has been stricken with leukemia.

In one paragraph, she describes the pained look on her grandfather's face:

"I had never seen him look so sad before. I found myself wondering if all those lines had been on his forehead yesterday, and if his eyes had always dropped beneath his bushy white eyebrows," it reads.

In another paragraph, she describes entering her grandmother's room:

"I pushed open the door to my grandparents' room tentatively. The room was dim, the only light coming from behind the closed blinds on the window. Grandma was sitting on her bed. Even in the semi-darkness I could tell that her eyes were red-rimmed. She jumped when she heard the floorboards creak beneath me."

She also describes how she has come to deal with the grief of losing her grandmother, in addition to her parents:

"The wind caressed my face and blew my black dress against my legs. My walk had a restorative effect one me, for although the loss of Grandma still hurt, I felt stronger than I did before. People would come and people would go, but the ones I loved would never really leave me. Whether it was in this world or the next, I knew Grandma and I would meet again."

Kirkham said her mother, Daria, plays a role in her writing.

"She checks it to make sure it's believable," the teen said, smiling.

Daria, a tutor at Lafayette School in Shelton, smiles back.

"I'm proud of her. She's very talented. She also draws," Daria said.

Her 13-year-old daughter Natalie pops her head in the door to quickly say hello before running out with the family's 1-year-old dog, Ruby, to pick up 8-year-old sister Michelle at the bus stop down the road.

The girls' father, Phillip, is "a banker in New York City," Lindsay said.

Asked what she would do with her $1,000 prize money, Kirkham answered matter-of-factly that she plans to save it to buy her first car.

She said she is thinking about college and what field will be her major, though she is leaning toward biology or health science at an out-of-state university.

That would not be an unusual choice because the family hails from northern New Jersey, having come to Monroe in 1998.

Writing is something Kirkham enjoys, and she would like to write a novel one day, but she isn't focusing on writing as her primary career goal at this point.

"I'm thinking it's hard to get into and maybe I'll do it on the side," she said.

The quality is there, though, according to Norm Pattis, the contest judge who rated Kirkham's essay.

Pattis wrote in brief remarks about the essay that her prose is crisp and allowed tension to build, making the story compelling.

"The writer also made me care deeply about the narrator. It was a pleasure to read this piece, even if the story was sad," he remarked.

And it all started with a Harry Potter book.

"I don't know which Harry Potter book is my favorite. I like them all," Kirkham said.

For more information on the Connecticut Young Writers Trust, visit the Web site www.ctyoungwriters.org