The Jane Austen Society of North America conducts an annual student Essay Contest to encourage the study and appreciation of Jane Austen’s works in new generations of readers.

Students world-wide are invited to compete for scholarship awards in three divisions:

• High School: students and home-schooled students enrolled at the high school level during the contest year
• College/University: students enrolled in at least six credit hours of course work at a junior college, college, or university during the contest year
• Graduate School: students enrolled during the contest year in at least three credit hours of graduate course work at a college or university leading to an advanced degree.

The prompt for the contest this year is to choose something Austen has used in her novels—a particular word, a recurring situation or motif, perhaps a physical object, symbol or activity—and then choose two scenes (they may be from the same novel or different ones) where she employs the chosen “something” in contrasting or complementary ways. Explain the different roles it plays and why Austen uses them as she does. What point is she trying to make? Does she succeed? In conclusion, explain what prompted your choice.

Scholarships are awarded to winners in each of the three divisions:

• First Place: $1,000 scholarship, plus free registration and two nights’ lodging for JASNA’s upcoming Annual General Meeting. (Transportation to the conference is not provided.)
• Second Place: $500 scholarship
• Third Place: $250 scholarship

Winners also receive one year of membership in JASNA, publication of their essays on this website, and a set of Norton Critical Editions of Jane Austen’s novels.

We are keen to encourage quality, so suggest writers to check their stories before submitting using Prowritingaid. They have free and paid versions and are the best writing software we know to help improve grammar, readability and check for repetition, ‘sticky’ sentences and suggest alternatives.