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The official website of the HWA
news and features
HWA Crown Award Winners 2025
The winners are:Gold: The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry (Canongate Books)Non-fiction: Moederland by Cato Pedder (John Murray)Debut: A Poisoner’s Tale by Cathryn Kemp (Bantam) Read more about the books and the shortlisted titles on... more
Dorothy Dunnett / HWA Short Story Competition 2025
The winning and shortlisted stories! Huge congratulations to our winner, Sean Lusk, our Highly Commended writers, Alex Edwards and Joseph Dragovich, and the writers of our shortlisted stories, Liz Kershaw, Sopie Lenoir, and Elaine... more
Dorothy Dunnett Society / HWA Short Story Competition Longlist
Many congratulations to the writers of our longlisted stories. The shortlist and winning stories will be announced on Friday 3 October! We ended up with nearly 150 stories this year and the standard was extremely high. Many thanks to our first... moreauthor showcase
Stephanie Bramwell-Lawes
Stephanie Bramwell-Lawes grew up in the historic city of Bath, and studied History & Ancient History at Exeter University. A lifelong love of literature led to a career in publishing, and her passion for books has only continued to grow ever since. Her favourite novels include Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Woman in White, and anything by Tracy Chevalier.... more
Nicola Cornick
Nicola Cornick is an international bestselling and award-winning novelist who has written over thirty historical romances and historical mysteries in a career spanning twenty years. Her books sell in over twenty five countries, have been translated into many languages and been published in multiple formats including e-book, audio and manga. Nicola studied History at the University of London and at Ruskin College Oxford and worked in academia... more
Alison Baxter
Alison is a historian with a passionate interest in the lives of ordinary people, especially the forgotten stories she finds in the newspaper archive. She worked in educational publishing and the charity sector before returning to full time study to complete an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. She went on to gain a PhD in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes, and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.... more
Tony Aston
Tony Aston is a former Scotland Yard detective and counter-espionage specialist within the UK Defence Industry. His first book, "Redditch - From the Chip Shop to the Batchley", published in May 2022, tells of his life growing up during the 1950s and 60s in the Midlands town at a time when it was trying to repair, rebuild and reinvent itself after WWII. He has a great interest in 20th century civil and military history, demonstrated in his first,... more
