2026 Essay Contest: The Results Are In!
August 17, 2026
JASNA's 2026 Essay Contest was another record-breaker! We received 675 entries from students across the United States, Canada, and 44 other countries. The many thoughtful, creative entries are proof that Jane Austen continues to inspire students around the world, and we’re delighted to announce this year’s nine winners. Their winning essays are now published on our website, along with a list of the students who have been awarded Honorable Mentions.
Congratulations to the winners, and our sincere thanks to all the students, contest screeners, and judges who participated!
The Topic: Men and Boys in Jane Austen’s Novels
In Austen’s novels, we usually see the world through her heroines’ eyes. For the 2026 Essay Contest, we invited students to shift their focus and examine her male characters. They were asked to choose two or more of her heroes, villains, friends, enemies, relatives, comic figures, young boys, etc. Essays could explore their similarities and/or differences, whether their characters change during the novel, their relationships with their siblings, how men tend to treat women, or focus on another area.
The Winners
Six out of the nine winners are from countries outside the U.S. and Canada: four from India, one from Egypt, and one from the Republic of Korea. Entries were reviewed in two rounds by 42 judges, and the top three essays in each division received scholarship awards. First-place winners have also been invited to attend JASNA’s Annual General Meeting in Tucson, Arizona. The nine students receiving top honors include:
High School Division
- First Place:
The Men Who Cannot See: Male Authority and Its Limits in Lady Susan
- Second Place: Anushka Naithani
“In Vain Have I Struggled”: Sentence, Silence, and the Moral Grammar of Men in Pride and Prejudice
- Third Place: Maitreyi R. Kumar
“By Such Means As Are Within My Reach”: What Men Write When They Cannot Speak
College/University Division
- First Place: Shambhawi Tiwari
Weaponized Incompetence, Paper Shields, and the Regency Domestic Opt-Out
- Second Place: Diksha Tripathi
The Tyranny of Tenderness: Mr. Woodhouse and Sir Walter Elliot as Austen’s Most Dangerous Men
- Third Place: Mennatullah T. Mohamed
The Mirror of Self-Reckoning: Redefining Masculine Virtue and Authority in Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion
Graduate School Division
- First Place: Sonali Govind
The Ledger of Character: Credit, Debt, and Masculine Identity in Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion
- Second Place: Inhee Choi
Missing Masters: The Absence of Male Heirs and the Fracturing of Female Desire in Jane Austen’s Novels
- Third Place: Dylan Perles
“I Consider a Country-Dance as an Emblem of Marriage”: The Heroes and Villains of Jane Austen’s Ballrooms
JASNA sponsors the Essay Contest each year to foster the study and appreciation of Jane Austen's works in new generations of readers. The 2027 contest topic and rules will be published in November 2026, and we will begin accepting submissions in February 2027.
