WELCOME TO THE JANE AUSTEN LITERACY FOUNDATION WRITING COMPETITION 2025
The Jane Austen Literacy Foundation Writing Competition provides a creative opportunity for writers, uplifting reading for the community and the chance to participate in choosing the winner.
The authors of the three winning stories will be invited to attend Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday Celebration at Chawton House with Jane’s family, where the winner will be named the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation Writer of 2025. The winning stories (the overall winner and two runners up) will be recorded as an audiobook by multi-award winning and best-selling Austen narrator, Alison Larkin, published WORLDWIDE and promoted for all to hear! Click here to listen to our 2024 Winning Stories Audiobook.
In celebration of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday anniversary in 2025, we have chosen a theme that resonates with Jane’s own life and her extraordinary legacy. Without reading and being stimulated by a wide range of literature, and without the world reading her novels, Jane Austen wouldn’t have become the world’s most beloved author and brought us together as a community.
Our theme for 2025 is ‘The Power of Reading’ and we invite you to write an original, fictional story - not Austen themed, but as a fresh exploration. Our writing competition is designed to stimulate unique narratives inspired by our theme in any setting, time period, or genre of your choosing.
The Jane Austen Literacy Foundation panel of judges will select a short list of ten stories from all of the eligible entries received. Our three winning stories will be selected from the shortlist by our special panel of judges including our founder & chair, Caroline Jane Knight, our lead judge, author Jane MacKenzie and author of Jane Austen, The Secret Radical, Helena Kelly.
The three winning stories will be published on the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation website and promoted on social media (with the author identities kept confidential) for a ten-day public vote, to select our overall winner. The winner will be announced at the Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday Celebration, in the grounds of Chawton House on Sunday 22nd June 2024. The winner will also be announced on our website and social media. The three winning stories will be recorded as an audiobook and published worldwide.
The competition is open to everyone around the world (aged 16+). Perhaps you have never written a short story before or entered a competition – do not fear! The competition is judged in two categories - new fiction writers and experienced fiction writers (see Entry Guidelines below for details).
Whether you wish to enter or not, please support this initiative by sharing details of the competition with your friends and family, book clubs, writing groups and anyone else who may be interested.
Before you start writing:
Please click here for the Entry Guidelines, including details of how to enter:
Please read the guidelines carefully before you start writing and before you submit your entry, as any breach of the Entry Guidelines will result in exclusion from the competition.
If you have any questions, please email us here
I hope you enjoy writing and crafting your stories. We can’t wait to read your entries and look forward to announcing the winner at our picnic in June.
Best