The Historical Writers Association
The official website of the HWA
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 Historia
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 O’Connor. You can buy the anthology containing all six stories on amazon.
The fantastic books longlisted for the Debut, Gold and Non-Fiction Crowns have been announced! Read all about them at https://historiamag.com/2025-hwa-crown-awards-longlists/
Due to some technical problems with the site (sigh) we have extended the date for submissions for the HWA Crowns to midnight on Friday 9 May 2025. If anyone has continuing problems with the site, or you want to check that your submissions have been received, please email Imogen on chair@historicalwriters.org
We are inviting submissions for the 2025 Debut, Gold and Non-Fiction Crowns. You can find all the details via the Awards Page and congratulations again to the brilliant 2024 winners:
For the Gold Crown – Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle. For the Non-Fiction Crown – Four Shots In the Night: A True Story of Stakeknife, Murder and Justice in Northern Ireland by Henry Hemming and for the Debut Crown The Tumbling Girl by Bridget Walsh
You have until midnight on 1 July to send us a historical short story of up to 3500 words. Entry fee is still £5 and we’ll publish the six shortlisted stories in our annual anthology. All details here. Open this post for the link, or go direct to https://historicalwriters.org/ddshwass-award-2025/
Many congratulations to our 2024 winner, K.F. MacCarthy, our highly commended writers, Liz Kershaw and Elaine O’Connor, and our shortlisted writers Laura Karim, Muiread O’Hanlon and Cath Staincliffe. The anthology is available here