A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250
Challenge Dates: Friday, June 27–Sunday, August 31, 2025
Are you a die-hard Austen fan, or merely Austen-curious? Check out our Teen Summer Reading Challenge inspired by the exhibition A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250. Beginning as a teenager, Austen cultivated her imaginative powers and her ambition to publish. Discover Austen’s original novels and the many modern works inspired by her voice.
The challenge: Read as many original Austen and Austen-inspired works as you can this summer!
Take a look at our recommendations here:
Teen Summer Reading Challenge Book List
Jane Austen Blackout Poem
To show your Austen appreciation, turn a page into a poem. Select a page from a Jane Austen book that you’ve read for this challenge, and create a Blackout Poem with it. Submit it to the Morgan by Sunday, August 31, 2025. Three winners will be selected and will be awarded a $100 Morgan Shop gift card. Prizes are non-transferable. The poems will be published on the Morgan’s website and social media pages.
A Blackout Poem is composed by striking out words from a printed page to create new meaning.
Contest Guidelines:
- Entrants must live, work, or go to school in one of the five boroughs of New York City.
- Entrants must be between 13 and 19 years of age as of the date of entry.
- Challenge begins at 12:00:01 AM ET on Friday June 27 2025 and ends at 11:59:59 PM ET on Sunday August 31, 2025.
- Limit one entry per person, per email address.
- Winners will be notified by Monday September 8, 2025.
- The Morgan may request a photograph of the winner to post with their writing.
You can find an example using Jane Austen’s Emma here.
Include the name of the Jane Austen book you are using for your poem, and provide a “before” and “after” image like the example.
Submissions must be written in English. Works can contain mature themes, but inappropriate or graphic content is subject to removal.
You can use whatever colors you want to create your poem on the page and add design elements of your choice. We recommend scanning the page, but you can create your work of poetry physically or digitally.
Blackout poems can be submitted in PDF, JPEG, PNG, or HEIC formats.
More information on blackout poems can be found here.