Glenburn School Celebrates Student Author

GLENBURN, Maine (WABI) - There are many published fiction authors. But, how many do you know that are in the eighth grade?

Meghna Vijay is a student at Glenburn School, and she’s also a published author and is speaking to her peers about the experience.

Meghna’s fellow student asked her, “What are you most proud of yourself for doing?”

Meghna replied, “Writing this book. It did take time and stuff like that, overcoming writer’s block, getting out of the pit of despair, stuff like that.”

She started writing a story in the seventh grade and now “Realms: A Short Story” is complete and ready for readers all over.

“It was really satisfying like when I first opened my book and held in my hands for the first time to see like all your hard work is like finally coming down to like actual thing,” said Meghna.

The idea of a middle schooler writing a book was a new one, but certainly not out of the question.

Meghna said, “I feel like coming up with this story was the easy part but like actually writing it and like planning out your story and getting it all in line was the hardest part.”

Glenburn REACH Director, Tom Coleman said, “I was surprised that, you know, we had an eighth grader that was so interested in publishing a book. She didn’t know for sure where that would go, in the direction of writing. But, she was she was just totally engaged with this process and really was excited.”

Now at a school assembly held to share the news and for Meghna to talk with folks at the school about her accomplishment, she was joined by her parents and her instructor who kept her going.

In addition to feelings of pride and excitement for Meghna, they also see the effect that this has on her peers.

Meghna’s Father, Vijay Vijay said, “It was very heartening to see a lot of the younger kids asking questions. You can see that they’ve got them interested. It gives them a sense of belief that they can do it too. So, that was nice to see it and so many people ask questions.”

In the end, Meghna is thrilled to see this through and to have had people support her through the journey.

“My sister was my biggest editor, though, yeah, it’s really nice, like it means a lot to me so I dedicated this book to her and I have a very supportive family that I’m very thankful for. I wanna say thank you to Mr. Coleman and Josh Alves,” said Meghna.

And she has some words of encouragement for folks.

Meghna said, “If you can publish a book in eighth grade like you can do anything you put your mind to it.”

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