Gillian Graham, staff writer for the Courier, won two writing awards Saturday at the New England Newspaper & Press Association convention in Boston. The Courier competed in the largest weekly newspaper division of the 2010 New England Better Newspaper contest.

Graham won the first place right-to-know award for her ongoing coverage of Maine Educational Assessment test scores that were thrown out by the state. The state also investigated a Biddeford Middle School teacher who helped review questions as the test was being developed.

A judge said, “the articles solidify the idea that we want to know who is teaching our kids. Graham revealed the teacher’s actions and answered a lot of parents’ questions. This is a great example of the public’s right to know. Graham continued to follow the nine-month investigation that allowed readers to understand the complex situation and what it meant to them.”

Graham also won second place for her human-interest feature story about the 50-year reunion of a Coast Guard seaman and the lighthouse keeper’s daughter he rescued during a storm off Wood Island.

“The drama begins immediately in Graham’s telling of a rescue 50 years ago: He sank to the ocean floor three times, and the little girl was saved,” a contest judge wrote. “Nice storytelling and good writing tell this reunion story very well.”