Crown Awards

We are all lovers of history, and we are living through a remarkable moment after the death of Her Majesty the Queen and the accession of King Charles. We suspect that our members and readers will want to take some time to watch and think about this change of reigns. As a result we’ve decided to delay the announcements of the HWA Crown Awards Longlists for a week until the 28 September to make sure the amazing nonfiction, debuts and novels we’ve been reading will get the attention they deserve. The shortlists will still be announced on 25 October. We will be announcing the winners on 23 November and holding our awards party that evening.

We’ll be announcing the awards on twitter via @HistoriaHWA and follow up with all the details of the selected books on www.historiamag.com and here.

We are delighted by the number of submissions we’ve received, up almost 50% on last year. The number of excellent books means we’ve decided to change the dates of the announcements of the longlist and shortlist so our panels have the chance to come to a considered decision. See below for details.

The 2022 Crown Awards (Debut, Gold and Non-Fiction) are for full length books published for the first time in English in the UK between the 1 April 2021 – 31st March 2022. 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 closed: 30 April 2022

Longlists announced: 21 September 2022

Shortlists announced: 25 October 2022 

Awards ceremony: 23 November 2022

Publishers! It’s that time again. Please submit your entries for the HWA Debut Crown, NonFiction Crown and Gold Crown by the end of April. Books must have been published in English in the UK for the first time between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022 and there is a £35 charge per book. All the details and the entry form are here.

Read about the fantastic books longlisted for the 2021 Crowns on Historia

We are delighted  to have such a brilliant list of writers, book sellers, reviewers, bloggers and champions of historical writing  judging the prizes this year.

You can find out a bit more about them here, but in brief our huge huge thanks to: Clare Mulley (Chair, NonFiction), Jessie Childs, Dan Jones, Jagjeet Lally & Luke Pepera, Ayo Onatade (Chair, Debut), Susan Heads & Dan Bassett, Jean Fullerton (Chair, Gold), Kate Atherton, Robin Carter, Toby Clements, Nicola Cornick, Lizzie Lane, Sara O’Keefe, Natasha Onwuemezi & Frances Owen.

Submit a title to the Crown Awards, for Debut Fiction, Fiction and NonFiction

So these are the shortlists! Many thanks to our judges for their commitment, hardwork and those intense debates. Every book on the longlists was exceptional, so these really are the best of the best. Our congratulations to all the authors, agents and publishers involved.

 

HWA Debut Crown Shortlist 2020

Susan Heads, Ayo Onatade (chair), Simon Savidge

HWA Non-Fiction Crown 2020

Yasmin Khan, Keith Lowe, Timothy Phillips, Alex von Tunzelmann (chair)

HWA Gold Crown 2020

Kate Atherton, Robin Carter, LP Fergusson, Jean Fullerton, Jean Goodhind, Jason Hewitt (Chair), Frances Owen, Gill Paul.