Young winners of 2022 OUP Story Writing Competition celebrated at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature
DUBAI, 5th February, 2022 – The next generation of writing talent, the winners of the Oxford University Press (OUP) Story Writing Competition, were honoured today at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (3-13 February 2022) in a special prize-giving ceremony.
The annual competition is a fixture of the academic calendar with more than 3,700 students from the UAE sending in their entries this year.
The competition runs in Arabic and in English and is divided into age-specific categories: 11 and under, 12-14, 15-17 and 18-25.
Each winner received a book containing their original short stories and a winner’s plaque.
Presenting the awards at the ceremony were 2022 Festival authors Ali Sparkes and Nadia Al Najjar.
Students were invited to write their stories prompted by this year’s Festival theme.
‘Here Comes the Sun’.
Jennifer Duggan, Oxford University Press, said: “Looking forward to a brighter tomorrow was the perfect sentiment for this year’s competition, beautifully encapsulated by the phrase ‘Here Comes the Sun’.
We were uplifted by the many ‘feel good’ variations on the theme, capturing the imaginations of the students who entered.
We are proud to give our continued support to young writers through this competition and we hope it leads to many of them continuing to write in the years to come.
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The Festival programme is brimming with sessions to engage, entertain and inform, with topics encompassing fiction, history, current affairs, food, health, travel, biography, business and more.
There are opportunities to appreciate poetry, take part in creative writing workshops and generally indulge in intelligent and articulate discussion on a wide range of topics.
Sessions appeal to all ages and nationalities, featuring outstanding authors, thinkers and opinion formers.
Other initiatives celebrated at the Festival includes the Voices of Future Generations, which launches its second anthology of winning stories; the School Librarian of the Year; RGS Guildford Dubai Children’s Letter Writing Competition; Chevron Reader’s Cup; ENBD Poetry For All; Emirates LitFest Writing Prize; and the announcement of the first 10 fellows for the First Chapter: ELF Seddiqi Writers’ Fellowship.
The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature Festival is held with Founding Partners Emirates Airline and the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated authority for heritage, arts, and culture.