The Historical Writers’ Association (HWA) has great pleasure in revealing the 2026 Crown Awards shortlists, celebrating the best in historical writing, fiction and non-fiction published during 2025–2026. There are three awards categories — HWA Gold Crown, HWA Non-fiction Crown, and HWA Debut Crown — and six shortlisted books in each category. The books shortlisted for […]
The 2023 HWA Crown Awards shortlists
It’s a pleasure to announce the HWA Crown Awards shortlists for 2023: 18 books celebrating the best in historical writing, fiction and non-fiction, published during 2022–2023. There are three awards categories: HWA Gold Crown, HWA Non-fiction Crown, and HWA Debut Crown. The books shortlisted for the HWA Crown Awards for 2023 are: Debut Crown Award […]
Historia interviews: 2022 HWA Gold Crown Award shortlist: Natasha Pulley
Natasha Pulley was shortlisted for the 2022 Gold Crown Award for her novel The Kingdoms. Readers of her books, including The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, won’t be surprised that the judges loved its compelling strangeness, calling it: “An intricate, immersive tale set in an alternative Britain, where Napoleon won the war and French is spoken […]
Historia interviews: 2022 HWA Debut Crown Award shortlist: Rosie Andrews
Rosie Andrews was shortlisted for the 2022 HWA Debut Crown Award for The Leviathan, a historical mystery with a supernatural element set in 17th-century Norfolk. Rosie spoke to Historia about writing and researching her bestselling debut — and offers tips for new authors. The HWA Debut Crown celebrates new voices in historical fiction. What does […]
Historia giveaway! HWA Non-fiction Crown Award 2021 shortlist
Historia’s running three HWA Crowns giveaways to celebrate the books shortlisted for the 2021 Crown Awards. This one is for all six books on the Non-fiction Crown shortlist. The Historia Non-fiction Crown 2021 giveaway is open until 11.59pm on 17 December, 2021. The two winners will each receive all six books in the 2021 HWA […]
Historia interviews, 2021 Crown Awards shortlists: Linda Colley
Historian Linda Colley is the fifth interviewee in Historia’s 2021 HWA Crown Awards series. Her latest book, The Gun, the Ship & the Pen, was shortlisted for the Non-fiction Crown Award. Subtitled Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the Modern World, it begins in Corsica in 1755 and moves through every continent, showing how constitutions […]
Historia interviews, 2021 Crown Awards shortlists: Stuart Turton
Stuart Turton, author of The Devil and the Dark Water, talks to Historia for the third in our series of interviews with authors whose books have been shortlisted for HWA Crown Awards. His novel, which is up for the Gold Crown Award, is described by the judges as “Holmes and Watson on a 17th-century Dutch East […]
Historia interviews, 2021 Crown Awards shortlists: Mick Finlay
Mick Finlay talks to Historia for the second in our series of interviews with authors whose books have been shortlisted for HWA Crown Awards. Mick’s novel, Arrowood and the Thames Corpses, follows the investigations of William Arrowood and Norman Barnett, private inquiry agents in London who get the cases – and clients – that aren’t […]