2025 Essay Contest Now Under Way

The topic for JASNA's 2025 Essay Contest has been selected, and the writing competition is officially open. We’re excited to see what the next generation of Austen scholars has to say about it, and we invite high school, college, and grad school students worldwide to enter the contest for awards in three divisions. 

Topic

2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, which inspired the theme for our annual conference: “No check to my genius from beginning to end." This joking remark from one of her letters has suggested the prompt for the 2025 Essay Contest as well. 

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. 

There are a few additional guidelines and requirements, so be sure to visit our Essay Contest page for contest rules and submission requirements.

More Details

• Entry Deadline: June 2, 2025
• Awards: First-, second-, and third-place winners in each division will receive cash scholarships of $1,000, $500, and $250, respectively. The first-place winners will also be offered complimentary registration and two nights' lodging for JASNA's 2025 Annual General Meeting in Baltimore.