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TOI World Desk

Meet Aryash Shyam, 14-year-old Indian-American who won $1,000 for a story set in 1776

Pennsylvania Artificial Intelligence Philadelphia Robots

A 14-year-old Indian-American student from Pennsylvania has won a $1,000 national writing prize for a historical-fiction story set in a Philadelphia print shop on July 4, 1776. Aryash Shyam, a ninth-grade student at Lehigh Valley Academy, was named one of four middle-school winners of the 2026 John Estey Student Writing Competition, organised by the American Writers Museum in Chicago.

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