Ink of Ages Update #11 🧮 The numbers are in!

Welcome to the 11th issue of the Ink of Ages Update, a monthly email by me, Joanne Taylor, with a focus on writing, reading, and well ... more writing. Thanks for being here! If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up here.

19 September 2025

Hello,

What an amazing response! Submissions for the 2026 Ink of Ages Fiction Prize are now closed, and we’re excited to see the contest continue to grow. We received 657 entries in total (an increase from 511 last year), with 510 adult and 147 youth category submissions. In both categories, 57% of entries are historical fiction and 43% are inspired by mythology. Although, like last year, there are some tantalizing combinations of both.

Welcome to our volunteer submission reviewers

Entries have been screened and anonymized and are now in the care of our dedicated readers. Joining WHE team members for this feat are our volunteer submission reviewers: Vineeta Sharma (welcome back! Vineeta helped us last year too), Hannah Xen, Joy Dillon, H.H., Charlotte Hall, Sonia Gomes, B. T., Karen K, Sophia R, Salma L, Inshal A, Hannah B, Ashley Oppon, Mairi McCurdy, Frances Taylor (my sister!) and interns Taabir Asad and Lara Mennel.

We really appreciate the help! Mairi and Lara already know the contest well as their stories were shortlisted last year ?

From WHE editors and writers, gracing our spreadsheet with their insightful comments is: Joshua J. Mark, Ibolya Horvath, Kim Martins, Liana Miate, Fiona Richards, Babeth Etieve-Cartwright, Emma Williams, and Zhihui Zou.

How entries are screened and anonymized

1. Auto name removal. Google Forms adds the submitter name to the uploaded file. I run some code to take the name off again ?
2. Remove duplicates. Usually, people email us if they made a mistake and want to resubmit (thank you, helpful people!). But there are always some duplicate entries to remove. Only one story is allowed per author, so for those who submit more than one title, we only accept the first entry. If someone submits the same title more than once, we consider the most recent submission.
3. Word count blips. You might be surprised by how many entries are above or below the word count. Our shortest submission was 83 words, and our longest was over 11,000!? So they're removed from the list.
4. ID numbers and spreadsheet fun. All entries are given a unique ID number. I then make a new spreadsheet with all personal information stripped out to share with our reading team. To hide any interesting patterns according to time of submission, we also shuffle the order of entries.

Then reading can begin! And our team have already made an impressive start this year.

We’re looking forward to sharing the longlist on November 17 and discovering some new favourite short stories along the way. In October, I'll let you know what's making an impression with our reading team.

“Reading is like breathing in and writing is like breathing out, and storytelling is what links both: it is the soul of literacy.” 

—Pam Allyn, children's author & literacy advocate

Whatever you're reading this month, happy reading!

Joanne

Ink of Ages Fiction Prize is run by World History Encyclopedia and generously sponsored by Oxford University Press.

Joanne Taylor

Proofreader & Editor

World History Encyclopedia

https://www.worldhistory.org