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Sarah Waters author of Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith has agreed to chair the panel of judges for the Jane Austen Short Story Award with big money up for grabs and publication in an anthology. The competition celebrates the bicentenary of Jane Austen's arrival in the village of Chawton, Hampshire and is for stories of 2,000-2,500 words - with a historical or contemporary setting - inspired by Jane Austen's novels or Chawton House. You must include a 100 word piece on your inspiration for the story too. The Chawton House Library website says: "Our intention is to publish the very best short fiction inspired by Jane Austen or Chawton House - a place she knew well and where she spent the most productive years of her literary life. "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." The writer of the winning story will receive ??1,000 and two runners up will receive ??200 each. All three finalists will also win a week long writers' retreat at Chawton House and will be published in a winners' anthology. Fifteen other shortlisted authors will receive ??40 plus publication in the anthology. Entry is ??10 per story and you can download the entry form and rules at www.chawton.org/news/competition.html. The competition is open to writers of all nationalities who have not had a work of full-length fiction published. The closing date for entries is the 31st March 2009.