Celebrating the best in historical writing

We are once again delighted to welcome submissions of works of historical fiction and non-fiction from UK publishers for the HWA Crown Awards.

The 2026 Crown Awards (Debut, Non-Fiction and Gold) are for full length books published for the first time in English in the UK between the 1 April 2025 – 31 March 2026.

We will be awarding three crowns, for Debut, Non-Fiction and Gold:

• The Debut Crown is for a writer’s first full length novel.
• The Gold Crown is for novels by writers who have previously published full length novels.
• The Non-Fiction Crown is… for non-fiction.

Translations are welcome in all categories. 

Each submission costs £35.

For fiction, the bulk of the narrative of the work submitted must take place at least thirty-five years prior to publication. For non-fiction, the key events must have taken place, or the subject have been primarily active, at least thirty-five years prior to publication.

Our judges are writers, historians, booksellers and enthusiasts and we support all our longlisted and shortlisted books with extensive social media and features on Historia. An author does not need to be a member of the Historical Writers’ Association for their book to be entered.

Crown Awards Timeline

• Nominations close: 30 April 2026
• Longlists announced: 16 September 2026
• Shortlists announced: 14 October 2026
• Awards ceremony: 18 November 2026

We will hold the 2026 Crown Award ceremony in Central London

Please use the form below to submit a book.

We are happy for publishers to submit multiple titles – just scroll up and fill in the the form for each book – though each title can only be submitted for one award. We’ll send the nominator an invoice for their entries at the end of the submission period, and then they’ll be asked to send copies to our judging panels.

If you want to check that an entry has been received, or have any questions about eligibility, please email the Chair, Imogen Robertson.

You can read about the fabulous books which won and were shortlisted for the 2025 Crowns in our online magazine, Historia. There are still sponsorship opportunities available for these awards.  To discuss sponsorship of any or all of the Crown awards, please email Imogen Robertson.  

We encourage authors to ask their publishers to nominate them, but are happy to accept nominations from the authors themselves. Please note that you will have to send out between five and ten copies of their books to our judges, and postage and packing costs are borne by the nominators.

Entry form

Thank you for your support of the HWA Crown Awards!