It’s a quintessentially American institution, where kids battle it out to correctly spell ten-dollar words like 'querimonious' and 'solidungulate'. This year, the long dominance of Indian-American competitors was broken by the first ever black American winner, 14-year-old Zaila Avant-garde. Documentary filmmaker Sam Rega tells us the story of the National Spelling Bee.
","author_name":"The Irish Times"}