VOTING CLOSES MIDNIGHT FRIDAY 19TH JUNE 2026
A huge thank you to everyone who entered the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation short story writing competition 2026. This year’s competition was our biggest yet, with over 250 entries from 30 countries, all exploring our theme, 'A Story Worth Telling'.
Our first panel of judges from the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation read all of your entries and after careful consideration and deliberation selected a longlist of 12 short stories.
Our second panel of judges, including Caroline Jane Knight - our founder and chair, and author of Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage, Helena Kelly - author of Jane Austen, the Secret Radical and The Worlds of Jane Austen - and Cass Grafton, author/co-author of nineteen titles, including A Quest for Mr Darcy, and the Little Cornish Cove series, selected our three winning stories from the longlist.
For the third and final round of judging, to choose our winner for 2026, it’s over to you! There was a wide variety of topics and styles, which is reflected in our three finalist stories, and we are sure you are going to enjoy reading them just as much as we have.
Our three finalist stories (in alphabetical order) are:
Every Word a Wave
The Ulster Division
The Woman Who Borrowed Other People’s Endings
Help choose the winner of The Jane Austen Literacy Foundation Writing Competition 2026.
Read each story - you can either read on screen or download as a PDF (and print if you wish)
Scroll to the bottom of the screen and vote for your favourite story
Voting ends midnight Friday 19th June 2026, UK time. The Jane Austen Literacy Foundation Short Story Writer for 2026 will be announced on Sunday 21st June at The Knight Family Picnic at Chawton House, hosted by our founder and chair, Caroline Jane Knight. The winner will also be announced on social media, when the authors of our finalist stories will also be revealed. All three stories are winners and will be recorded as an audiobook by the world’s top selling Austen narrator and Jane Austen Literacy Foundation Ambassador, Alison Larkin, and released on Audible and YouTube later in the year, for all to hear.
VOTE HERE:
Thank you for participating in the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation Writing Competition 2026!