Fox Chapel Area students win in WQED Writers Contest

Three Fox Chapel Area School District students were named winners in the 2026 WQED Writers Contest. Hartwood Elementary School third grader Emmerson McCormick was named a first-place winner for her story “The Mystery of the Midnight Gym.” The second-place winner was O’Hara Elementary School third grader Camden Lenz for his story “Waffle and the Attack of the Terrible Toaster.” Hartwood Elementary School first grader Celia Chan was awarded third place for her story “7 Years of Bad Luck.”

Nearly 3,000 entries were submitted, and the Fox Chapel Area winners were three of 26 students who won awards in this year’s contest. The students competed against others in their own grade levels, and the contest was open to students in kindergarten through grade 5 from the greater Pittsburgh area. The winning students were honored at an award ceremony at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh as part of Pgh Book Fest May 30.

All the winners’ stories are available to see and listen to (read by the authors) through WQED’s Writers Contest page at https://www.wqed.org/education/writers-contest/writers-contest-2026-winning-stories/