Mykah Weldon

All preschoolers walk around collecting new words and phrases to build their small worlds. Words come to them in thousands, and phrases open portals to new possibilities. In preschool, sophomore Valery Liang experienced double the immersion, learning English as a second language to her already-expanding Chinese. Since then, Liang continues to absorb language through stories.
From writing out of necessity to crafting fictional worlds, now, Liang is getting recognized for her literary works. In the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, Liang received a gold key for her stories, “Fate, Like Darkness” and “The Stories Broken Dragons Tell” and a silver key for “An Overture to Dying Seabirds.”
“I went to their online portal and made an account. And I basically just uploaded my works as a text file. They have different subcategories under writing, like science fiction, fantasy, journalism, and different things like that. And I submitted three works, one to flash fiction, one to short story, one to SciFi/Fantasy,” Liang said.
Instead of an “in it to win it” mindset, Liang just wanted a fun activity that combined her and her friends’ different interests while also showcasing her love for writing.
“Basically, I just really love writing. It’s always been my passion. My friend was like, ‘Oh, you should enter this,’ because she was entering the art categories…So I was like, ‘Okay, sounds fun,’” Liang said.
Her love for writing started in childhood. From reading all the time to participating in group projects that included writing, Liang was constantly growing as a writer.
“So I really liked reading as a kid, and whenever we had a project that required writing, in maybe elementary or middle school, all my classmates would be like ‘Valery loves reading! Let’s make her do the writing.’ I was probably really bad at it back then, but I just did it,” Liang said.
At around age 4, Liang and her parents moved to the United States from China. Since she was so young, and was put into a primarily English speaking school, she was able to quickly pick up the language and help her parents proofread their writing.
“They speak English well (they’re both professors), but they don’t really prefer speaking in English. So since I was in like third grade, I’ve been reading over their emails and their reports and whatever. So I think that’s kind of inspired my love for reading and language,” Liang said.
Every writer has to start somewhere. For Liang, taking stories that she loved and rewriting them was essential in her writing journey.
“When I was younger, I would just write whatever I wanted; mostly fantasy or complete copies of whatever I just read…If you look back on my old stories, you can tell what book they’re based off of. I think, now, my writing is like a patchwork of everything I’ve ever read, and it’s grown into this independent thing,” Liang said.