We’re delighted to announce the longlist for the 2025 Historical Writers’ Association (HWA) Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition: 25 impressive pieces of historical short fiction which go through to the next round of judging.
Congratulations to all the longlisted authors!
The HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition 2025 longlist:
Iko of Benin, King’s Diver by Jo Bardsley
Sword and Song by Millie Bowker
Inquire with Josephine by Maria Brekke
City of the Dead by Anne Byrne
Rammerfjellet, Fallen by Katherine Catchpole
A Discourse on the True Nature of Evil by Kirsten Claiden-Yardley
Domina Tarraconensis Vandalorum by Alexander Daman
A Game of Hazard by Katy Darby
We Bring Miracles by Joseph Dragovich
Poacher Turned Game Keeper by Alex Edwards
The Changeling by Emma Fielder
War-Thoughts Have Left Their Places Vacant by Irma Gottschalk
The Carnation Revolution by Portia Holdsworth
An Insignificant Act by Liz Kershaw
Before the Carnival by Barrett Lee
Octagon by Sophie Lenoir
Golden Paratroopers by Bryony Lorimer
Final Score by Sean Lusk
New Hooves for Old by Anne Meale
Barred by Elaine O’Connor
What Can You Tell Us of the Misted Lands by Sally O’Reilly
What We Burned by Dane Sawyer
The Convention by Gerard J Uhrig
Sugar Moon by Jane Weary
Foie Gras for Two by Judith Wilson
Please join us when the shortlisted, highly commended, and winning short stories are announced on Friday, 3 October on the awards page of the HWA website, here in Historia, and live on Twitter/X. Keep an eye out for this year’s hashtag: #HWADDSS25.
All six of these stories will be published in an anthology at the end of this year, and their authors will be invited to the HWA’s annual awards party on 19 November, 2025.
If you’d like to pass on the word about a longlisted author, feel free to use our graphics:
Read the stories that won past HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competitions:
2024: St Kilda Bird Song by KF MacCarthy
2023: Hecate’s Daughter by Jo Tiddy
2022: Collapse by Chrissy Sturt
2021: His Mother’s Quilt by Naomi Kelsey
2020: The Race by Alice Fowler
2019: The Daisy Fisher by Kate Jewell
2018: Nineteen Above Discovery by Jennifer Falkner
2017: A Poppy Against the Sky by Annie Whitehead
