Jane Austen Short Story Award 2009!

Chawton House Library has just announced a Jane Austen short story competition to celebrate 'the bicentenary of Jane Austen’s arrival in the Hampshire village of Chawton – where she spent the most productive years of her literary life'.

It looks really exciting! Here's part of the blurb from the Chawton House Library website:

Our intention is to publish the very best short fiction inspired by Jane Austen or Chawton House – a place she knew well.

We are looking for short stories of 2,000-2,500 words in length. The inspiration for your story can be taken from any theme in Jane Austen’s novels: it might even be a character or a single sentence that sets your creative juices flowing. Or perhaps your imagination will be fired by the Elizabethan mansion, Chawton House, where Jane Austen and her family often gathered, and now houses a rare collection of early women’s writing.

Stories can have a historical or a contemporary setting – anything goes as long as it is well written and you state on the entry form exactly what inspired you to write it.
...

First prize: £1,000. Two runners up: £200 each. All three finalists will also win a week’s writers’ retreat at Chawton House. Fifteen other shortlisted authors will receive £40 plus publication in the winners’ anthology.

The closing date for entries is the 31st March 2009.


What are you waiting for?! Head over to Chawton to download a PDF entry form and read the rules and regulation. :D

I have to say, I love the broad theme of the competition - it is so broad it tempts me to have a go ... inspiration taken from a theme, or a sentence, or the great house itself - I love that! I am not a fan-fiction person myself (sorry, no offense!!) so I'm very excited.

Pic: Chawton House viewed from the South Lawn from: Chawton House Library