The Bookseller.com

4th July 2009

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Waters to chair Austen competition

02.12.08 Katie Coyne

Sarah Waters, award winning author of Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, is to chair the judging panel for a new short story award inspired by Jane Austen. Chawton House Library launched the Jane Austen Short Story Award to celebrate the bicentenary of Austen’s arrival in the Hampshire village of
Chawton. It was here that she spent some of the most productive years of her literary life.

The competition is also aimed at raising the profile of the library, which is home to a collection of books by early English women writers. The library is part of the Elizabethan mansion Chawton House that was once owned by Jane Austen’s brother.

The shortlisted stories will be published as an anthology, Dancing with Mr Darcy, by independent publishers Honno in October 2009. First prize is £1000 plus a week’s writer’s retreat at Chawton House.

For competition rules and entry forms go to www.chawtonhouse.org

Jane Austen Sarah Waters Prize Katie Coyne