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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
Peggy Joque Williams
Award-winning author Peggy Joque Williams writes historical fiction inspired by her love of genealogy and her deep research into her European, French-Canadian, and Ojibwe ancestors. Her first two solo efforts, Courting the Sun: A Novel of Versailles and Braving the Dawn: A Novel of New France, imagine a life for her heroine, Sylvienne, unlike anything her own French ancestors likely experienced in France, but very closely reflects the lives of... more
Camilla Moreau
Camilla Moreau is an author of queer historical fiction with magical elements. She has a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Warwick. Originally from Wiltshire, she now lives in North London with her fiancée. She works in book marketing. She can be found online on Instagram and Threads. She also writes gothic historical fiction under the name Carmella... more
Jim Loughran
Jim Loughran graduated in 1976 from Queen's University Belfast with an Honours Degree in French and Spanish. He spent a year in Paris and the following year completed the Post Graduate Certificate in Education. After two years teaching French in Belfast and 10 years working for one of Dublin’s leading advertising agencies he joined Amnesty International where he was Head of Media and Communications for 15 years. He was then head hunted to join... more
Nina Wachsman
Nina Wachsman is the author of the Venice Beauties Mysteries is set in 17th Century Venice, The Gallery of Beauties, The Courtesan's Secret and The Courtesan's Pirate, all of which have been finalists for top awards in mystery: Agatha, Anthony and Silver Falchion. Her short stories and novels often have an art theme, shaped by her studying illustration with Maurice Sendak and a career as an art director. Due to her interest in art, she is a... more
