An American University of Sharjah (AUS) journalism student recently won first place in the Oxford University Press Story Writing Competition 2014 held at the annual Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. Jerusha Sequeira, who will graduate this semester, was honored in a March 8 award ceremony at Dubai's InterContinental Hotel. She received a trophy in the competition's 18-and-above category, and a ticket to partake in a creative writing workshop.

Sequeira's entry has since been published by organizers in Between Hello and Goodbye, a book compiling the 2014 Arabic and English winning entries from all age categories. "Writing fiction is a craft, and like any skill, it needs to be honed carefully. There's a lot to learn, and I certainly have a long way to go, but it's incredibly fun," said Sequeira.

Sequeira previously won the Dubai International Film Festival Young Journalist Award in 2012, and received the 2013 Sheikh Khalifa Scholarship at AUS.