April 29th, 2015: More than 200 students have taken part in this year's edition of the Canadian University Dubai (CUD) creative writing competition, which challenges university and high school students to pen original and imaginative tales in exactly 100 words.
Coordinated by student Naureen Patne with the support of Student Services, CUD's 5th annual 100 Word Writing Competition saw participants from six universities and six high schools compete across four different categories, to showcase their imagination and creativity through the written word. The winners were honoured at a recent award ceremony hosted by Naureen, where the top 10 entrants recited their though-provoking stories of dreams, terror, family, fate and love.
Taking first place in the High School Category was Hrithik Lakhiani of Delhi Private School (DPS), Sharjah, with a haunting tale entitled 'The Office Was Finally Quiet Today'. Second and third places in the category were also awarded to students from DPS, with Daksha Gehani taking the runner-up prize for her sentimental story "Cold Hands, Warm Heart", while Aasha Eapen's reflection on thought and conversation, 'The Things Dearest', won her third place in the category.
In the University competition, CUD student Hala Naser Alnsour was awarded the top prize for her darkly humoured tale 'A Fair Compromise', while second place went to Aishma Raghu from BITS Pilani with her entry - Neighbors' and third place was awarded to Zarak Rana from UOWD for his story 'Afterglow'. With his mysterious tale 'A Cruise Ship met with an Accident', CUD student Abdullah Musa received first prize in the English for Academic Purposes category.
This year's contest saw the introduction of a new category, which gave students under the age of 12 the opportunity to showcase their writing talents in a special competition of their own. The top three entrants in this inaugural event all hailed from DPS, with Angela Anna Jossy taking first place with her touching tale entitled 'The Best Invention of All Time', while Ashlin Roji's entry 'My Dream' was awarded the runner-up prize and Prerna Pai received third place for her story 'Fate'.
Each of the competition categories was assessed by a panel of eight internal judges, alongside Dubai-based professional authors, Ms. Kathy Shalhoub and Mr. Alexander McNabb, both of whom were on-hand at the award ceremony to share their experience with the audience of budding authors.
Mr. McNabb paid tribute to all the contestants saying, "Writing a story in 100 words is a difficult challenge; it's actually 10 times harder than producing 1,000 words and 100 times harder than writing 10,000 words - you can't afford to waste a single one. I have been amazed by the standard of entries this year, particularly from the young participants."
To read the winning entries, click here
Gallery
