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The Historical Writers’ Association helps traditionally published authors to connect with other writers, to find publicity opportunities and benefit from involvement in a thriving, supportive community. Interested in joining?

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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...  more

author showcase

Historical Writers Association member - Jad Adams
Hideous Absinthe: A History of the Devil in a Bottle by HWA member Jad Adams

Jad Adams

In my non-fiction I write about radicals and nationalists internationally and characters from the English Decadence of the 1890s. My most recent big book is Decadent Women: Yellow Book Lives, the previously untold story of the women who contributed to the innovative 19th century journal.  It came out late in 2023. Other books include Women and the Vote: A World History and biographies of Tony Benn, Gandhi and Emmeline Pankhurst. My...  more
Historical Writers Association member - Fiona Forsyth
Death and the Poet by HWA member Fiona Forsyth

Fiona Forsyth

Fiona Forsyth taught Classics at The Manchester Grammar School for twenty-five years before a family relocation to the Middle East gave her the time to write. She is author of the Lucius Sestius books, and a stand-alone The Third Daughter, published by Sharpe Books in 2022. She is particularly fascinated by the years of tumult that took the Romans from Republic to Empire, and loathes the Emperor Augustus. Living in Qatar for several years...  more
Historical Writers Association member - Shelley Puhak
The Dark Queens by HWA member Shelley Puhak

Shelley Puhak

SHELLEY PUHAK is a former English professor who lives near Washington, D.C. Her second nonfiction book, The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster (Bloomsbury, 2026), is a work of true crime and feminist history about Elizabeth Bathory, the 16th century noblewoman alleged to be the world’s most prolific female serial killer. Shelley's nonfiction debut was The Dark Queens (Head of Zeus, 2022), the remarkable,...  more
Historical Writers Association member - Sophie Perinot
The Sister Queens by HWA member Sophie Perinot

Sophie Perinot

Award winning author Sophie Perinot has enjoyed a decade-long career writing historical fiction. She’s authored solo novels centered on strong, royal women, (The Sister Queens and Médicis Daughter) as well as working with fellow historical novelists like Kate Quinn, Ben Kane, Heather Webb and Eliza Knight to craft collaborative novels about the French Revolution (Ribbons of Scarlet) and the destruction of Pompeii (A Day of Fire). Recently...  more
Historical Writers Association member - Mike Lewis
The Icarus Ascent: Ghosts of the Matterhorn by HWA member Mike Lewis

Mike Lewis

Mike Lewis, who writes 19-century historical fiction in the first person with the aim of putting the reader 'in the moment', has just published his new novel about the tragic first ascent of the Matterhorn in July 1865. The Icarus Ascent: Ghosts of the Matterhorn is the 'inside story' of one of mountaineering's most notorious disasters which claimed the lives of four of Edward Whymper's men shortly after they had conquered 'The Impossible...  more

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