The Jane Austen Literacy Foundation Writing Competition 2026 has been a great success!
The Jane Austen Literacy Foundation Writing Competition 2026 has been a wonderful success. Our theme was A Story Worth Telling, and we received more than 250 stories from 31 countries.
Our panel of volunteer judges, led by Jane MacKenzie, first narrowed it down to a longlist of a dozen short stories, from which our three finalists were chosen.
As always, our finalists were judged blind. Our panel of special judges read every entry with no names attached and chose three finalist stories on their merit alone. Those three stories were then published online — still anonymously — for the public to read and vote for their favourite. With the votes counted, we can reveal the writers behind the words.
THE PRIZE — All three finalist stories will be recorded as an audiobook by the multi-award-winning, world's top-selling Austen narrator, Alison Larkin, and published later this year for all to enjoy. Every penny raised goes to support the literacy work of the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation.
Congratulations to Kailum Graves, McLord Selasi Azalekor and Olive Shaw for writing the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation Winning Stories of 2026.
Scroll down to register for an email notification when our next Writing Competition launches in March 2027.
2026 1st place WINNER
2026 Winner: Kailum Graves
The Woman Who Borrowed Other People’s Endings
by Kailum Graves
Kailum Graves is a Brisbane-based writer whose work blends speculative fiction, humour, grief and the strange tenderness of being human. He writes short stories, poetry and longer fiction, often exploring memory, loss, love, identity and the absurd little bureaucracies of existence.
His work has been recognised in several Australian and international literary competitions, including recent prizes and longlistings across fiction and poetry. After many years working as a digital artist, Kailum is now building a writing practice.
His first novel is currently being sent to publishers, and he is developing a commissioned speculative television project alongside new fiction and poetry.
RUNNERS UP
(in story alphabetical order)
2026 Finalist: McLord Selasi Azalekor
Every Word A Wave
by McLord Selasi Azalekor
McLord Selasi is an award-winning writer, poet and performing artist from the Volta Region of Ghana. His work explores memory, identity, belonging and human experience, and has appeared in Rust & Moth, the Hamilton Stone Review, Prune Juice, Isele Magazine, Eunoia Review and elsewhere.
He was recently longlisted for the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, won Third Prize in the 2026 African Human Rights Sustainability Poetry Competition, received an Honourable Mention in the 2026 Evaristo Prize, and was Highly Commended in the 2026 erbacce prize for poetry.
He continues to write and experiment across literary and creative spaces.
2026 Finalist: Olive Shaw
The Ulster Division
by Olive Shaw
Olive Shaw is a sixteen-year-old writer from Northern Ireland. Although previously unpublished, she has been writing short stories for as long as she can remember — on any available paper or scraps she can find.
The Ulster Division is her first attempt at historical fiction, inspired by a visit to the Somme in 2024 and by the Irish relationship with war explored in W.B. Yeats' poetry. She has previously been shortlisted for the Beckett-Joyce Award, supported by Trinity College Dublin, and has received recognition from the University of Oxford's Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators in level-three German.
Olive hopes to pursue writing further in the future.
THANK YOU
We would sincerely like to thank all of the volunteers who work behind the scenes on our Writing Competition, including our lead judge, Jane MacKenzie, our competition administrator, Delicia Johnson, our judging panels and promoters.
We also would like to thank everyone who entered our competition, read our finalist stories and voted to choose our winner - we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
WRITING COMPETITION 2027
If you would like to be sent an email when our next short story writing competition is launched at the end of March 2027, fill in the form below: