WELCOME TO THE JANE AUSTEN LITERACY FOUNDATION WRITING COMPETITION 2026
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 The Knight Family Picnic at Chawton House with Jane Austen’s family, on Sunday 21st June, where the winner will be named the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation Writer of 2026. 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 2025 Winning Stories Audiobook.
In celebration of the UK's National Year of Reading 2026, this year's theme is A Story Worth Telling. Every culture, every community, every writer in every corner of the world has stories worth telling — and this competition is an open invitation to all of them. Whether you are writing from London or Lagos, Melbourne or Mumbai, Montreal or Madrid, we want to read your story. The Jane Austen Literacy Foundation's annual writing competition has always been a truly global celebration of storytelling, attracting entries from over 30 countries, and this year is no different.
The National Year of Reading was launched to reconnect people of all ages with the joy of reading — and we believe that is a mission the whole world should share. At the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation, we have always known that the best way to inspire readers is to give them stories worth reading. And the best way to get stories worth reading is to invite the world to write them. This competition is our contribution to that global mission — to reignite a love of reading, we invite storytellers to step forward everywhere.
We invite you to write an original, fictional story — our writing competition is designed to stimulate unique narratives inspired by our theme in any setting, time period, or genre of your choosing.
There are three rounds of judging to select our winners:
The Jane Austen Literacy Foundation panel of judges select a shortlist of ten stories from all of the eligible entries received. Every entry is read and reviewed by multiple judges.
Our three winning stories are 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 are published on the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation website and promoted to our subscribers and 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 Knight Family Picnic with Jane Austen’s Family, in the grounds of Chawton House on Sunday 21st June 2026. 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 2026 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.
Good luck and happy writing!