PLEASE NOTE – after all the disruption of the last weeks, we’ve changed our timetable for the 2020 Crowns. Nominations will be open throughout April, with the longlists and shortlists announced in the late summer and early autumn. The Crown Award Ceremony will take place on Wednesday 25th November.

We plan to hold the ceremony in St Ethelburga’s Church in Bishopsgate, but of course this will depend on what is safe and practical at that time. The safety of our members, authors, publishers, agents, judges, bloggers, booksellers and friends remains our top priority, and if that means the Crowns Ceremony becomes an online celebration only, so be it. Even – and perhaps especially – this year we still want to play our part in celebrating the brilliant historical writing, fiction and non-fiction, published in the UK and its ability to engage, illuminate, entertain and inform legions of readers.

We also appreciate that many publishers will wish to provide judges with e-versions of books rather than physical copies. We love having the physical books, but of course we wholeheartedly support all the efforts the industry is making to keep their employees safe and healthy and will happily take e-versions if needs be.

There are still sponsorship opportunities available for these awards, but at this time we are happy to take moral support! We are sorry to say we won’t be making cash awards this year, unless a sponsor steps in to fund them. Should any such person be tempted, please email Imogen Robertson.

To Nominate A Title

Nominate a book for the HWA Crowns using the form below. If you wish to nominate more than one book, you can use this same form multiple times. Once your submission has been checked by our administrator, we will invoice you. Each submission carries a charge of £35. There is no further charge if the book submitted is long or shortlisted. We will email you in April with the judges’ addresses to request judging copies. 

For the purposes of these awards ‘Historical’ means predominantly set at least thirty-five years in the past for fiction, or dealing with subjects from at least thirty-five years ago in non-fiction.

The Crown Awards 2020 are for books first published in English in the UK between  1 April 2019 – 31st March 2020

Updated: Nominations are now open until 30th April 2020.

The long and shortlists will be announced late summer / early Autumn 2020 and the prizes awarded on 25th November 2020. You can find coverage of the previous awards on www.historiamag.com

If you have any questions about the prize, problems with the form or want to check on a submission at any point, please email chair@historicalwriters.org