Submit your entry for the Essay Contest 2025 by JASNA. The deadline for submission is June 2, 2025!
JASNA 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:
Membership in JASNA is not required to enter the contest
2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. The theme for our annual general meeting is “No check to my genius from beginning to end,” a joking remark from one of her letters. This has suggested the prompt for our contest this year, which 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.
JASNA awards scholarships to winners in each of the three divisions:
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.
Interested participants can register through this link.
The deadline for submissions is June 2, 2025.
