Austen Writer's Awards 2020 Rulebook

Award Categories

Ok, first things first: This year's award categories.

As this is the first year we are running, we only have FIVE award categories. We hope, though, that we will be able to expand this in future years to open the door for and more of your creative efforts.

Life & Times

This category is for the stories that have the lady herself at their heart. So, if you've written about Jane's life from a historian's perspective or her own private thoughts in a diary then this is the place for you. We're also counting other non-fiction works about the era during which Jane Austen lived here.

Pride & Prejudice

Sense & Sensibility

Emma

We think these categories probably speak for themselves. If you've written a sequel, alternate endings or even completely re-written plotlines using these much loved characters then you'll find yourself at home here. The only condition is that they have be set in the same time as the original novels. We've got a whole separate category for modern AUs.

A Step into the 21st Century (and beyond)

And this last category is for all the authors who have brought the stories we love into the modern world. Or brought modern people into the worlds Miss Austen gave us. Have you written a time-travel love story where Elizabeth Bennet has been thrown into modern London or where an original character finds themselves at the mercy of Emma Woodhouse's matchmaking efforts? What about pulled the plot into the distant future where our favourites are androids or aliens instead of human beings? Or maybe you've stayed true to the original but your characters are having to deal with the trials of modern dating instead of 19th Century courting?

EDIT:
Following a comment from one of our readers, we have elected to add a SANDITON category. One of our team members is a Sanditon fanfiction author and she agrees with you, though, as a member of the judging panel, she won't be able to enter herself. Bias and all that. While we are very pleased to include this new category, please note that as an acknowledgement to Sanditon being in its very early days as a fanfiction category, there will be a reduced number of winners.

Up next: Entering the Contest