Historical & Mythological Short Fiction
Ink of Ages Fiction Prize
World History Encyclopedia's international historical and mythological short story contest
The 2026 Prize Longlist
At World History Encyclopedia, we've enjoyed reading all 510 adult and 147 youth submissions this year! Each story was read by at least two reviewers (usually three!) from World History Encyclopedia and our dedicated reading team. It's always a delight to read stories from all over the world inspired by such a range of history and mythology. Due to the number of entries this year, we had to pass on some really good writing. Thank you to everyone who shared their creativity with us!
Jump to the Youth Prize longlist ↓
Listed in no particular order:
"Sea, Iron, and Silence" by Willy Aaron Oliveira Batista
"The Last Monsoon of Calcutta" by Abir Sarkar
"They called me Wai Wuff" by Ameen
"Marcia" by A. Michaels
"TwoSpirit" by Alexander Thorne
"Seven Pillars of Wisdom" by Amanda Zhao
"The Witchfinder General" by Celia Kay Andrew
"Beyond the Surface" by Angel Kimura
"The Weaver of the Steppe" by Annah Chiedza Hodhera
"The Treads Go Both Ways Over My Granite Spine" by Anne Meale
"Twelve Bottles of Rum" by Ari Lael Tulk
"Sita Speaks in Silence" by Arunav Goswami
"Defying Death?" by Asta Eggertsen Ravn
"A Life Cut Short" by Athena C.
"Dancing Giants" by Atlas Weyland Eden
"The Songs of Ash and Oak" by Alex Hall
"All They Saw Was a German" by Mandy Nachampassack-Maloney
"Oberleutnant Raymond Zoller" by Katie Thorn
"The Maiden's Sigh" by Barbara Bridger
"Fire Storm" by Barbara Swihart Miller
"Brink" by Kate Glass
"Eva" by Todd A.
"Cuan" by Iericho Iwos
"The Greenstone Beads" by Shannon Phillips and Gayle J. Fritz
"The Last Scroll" by Christina Charles
"Phryne" by Igwe Maryann Chidalu
"The Weaver of the Chimu Stars" by Chiedza Mukucha
"Igbo Flight " by Chisom Umeh
"Asterion" by Christopher Smith
"When the Bells Toll" by CJ
"The Neck " by Chelsea Lebron
"The Wedding at Stanton Drew" by Katherine Hanks
"Threads of Defiance" by Katim Touray
"Journal of Hour Unwinding" by Katie Samiljan
"Ma's Notes" by Kwame McPherson
"In Death, You are Art" by Lady Raine
"The Yaksha of the Pond" by Loshi Rajen
"Daughter of Steel" by Laurence Stevens
"The Ox and the Silver Lady" by Letizia
Rivera-Guzmán
"Doomsday" by Linda Erwin
"The Minotaur Conspiracy" by Linda Cirulli-Burton
"Iron & Velvet" by Lindsay Stafford
"The Acorn Before the Oak" by Matthew Llewelyn
"A Meeting of Minds" by Lauren Colley
"Let the Games Begin" by Sheila Lorimer
"The Last Witch Hunter's Grandson" by Deidra Whitt Lovegren
"Stefan Sang" by Elaine Gao
"Urn of Bitter Prophecy" by Mackay Wood
"Wet Plate Collodion" by Madison Vansco
"The Sacred Song " by Malini Nair
"The King's Shilling" by Mark Emerson
"The Rent Collector" by Martian Nella
"Scars of the valleys" by Matt Roberts
"Saved by the River Thames" by Megan Sharpless
"Echoes of Talikota" by Megha Dwarakanath
"The Arithmetic of Ash" by M.R. Cameo
"Warmth in the Woods" by Sydney Miller
"The Weaver’s Code" by Moise Tougma
"Court Games " by Morna Sullivan
"Whispers Over the Airwaves" by Clyde Mudada
"The Mother of Webs" by Lucia-Maria Nicula
"Lucas and the River Mumma" by Nadine Jones Graham
"A Crack in the Mirror" by Timothy Collyer
"Persephone " by T. Nicks
"The African Griot" by Takudzwa Wayne Mhaka
"In the Lost 'Book of Goodbyes' There Was Reportedly a Chapter..." by Lee Tyler Williams
"The Crown That Would Not Bow" by Writinah
"Violet's war memories" by Ada Wright
"A Good Reason" by David Roe
"A City of Disease: 1348" by Matilda Rudston de Baer
"SEIRA Inc" by Denarii Peters
"Sense and Scalability: of Trolls and Ledgers" by Dimitry Partsi
"The Hvidding Folk" by Karen Walker
"The Red Mountain of Rodofel" by Marwa Abu Raida
"To Buggy or not to Buggy!" by Shweta Mathur Lall
"The Birth of Eros and Anteros" by R. H. Rogers
"The Throne of Two Lights" by Elian Rodriguez
"Ascension" by Thalia Othman
"The Passions of the Divine Moon " by Ishtar
"The Phoenix Who Would Be A Dragon" by Lixin Foo
"The Pilot Stone" by Frank DiLorenzo
"The Echo of the Chains" by FryDD
"Chimera" by Fred Manget
"Into the Breach" by Gordon Doherty
"West of the Sun and East of the Moon" by Hannah E Hunt
"And an Axe" by Hilary Orme
"The Potter’s Daughter" by Hussein Bassir
"Eromenos" by Immaculate Halla
"The Wall Commands Us All" by Tomias Keno
"Beyond the Lantern Light" by Jade Swann
"The last guardian of the river" by Wedyan jasim
"The Curse of Ochus" by Jayant Neogy
"I got what I wanted. Did you?" by Nyssa
"Thomas" by Judy Birkbeck
"Apotheosis" by Juliette Jarabek
"Bone Flute's Lament" by Veronica Juma
"Blinkered" by K. A. Easton
"Bitter Gold" by Natalya Lim
"Bloody Dreaming" by Nathan Steward
"Grit" by M. J. M. Norwood
"Through the mountain, through the frozen past" by Dimitrios A. Ntontis
"Wilhelm Krause, executioner" by Peter Frederick Matthews
"Like Salt, We Melt into the Sea " by Law Yuen Tong
"The White Picket Fence" by Patricia Quink
"The Jaguar’s Whisper" by Rufaro Chipo Phiri
"Red Paint Flows Like Blood" by PVZM
"The Nightwalker " by Robert Rayner
"Surrender" by R Tulley
"Karaka Creek" by Rem Wigmore
"Silence" by Richard Attree
"In the Land of Heroes" by Aleah Romer
"Restoration" by Rose Saltman
"A Father And A Tide" by Mithila Dutta Roy
"As the Stones Remember " by Dawn
"No Other Nation" by Orpheus Americanus
"The Singing Tree " by Sarah Lizzy
"Inferno Chinatown " by Scott Ting-A-Kee
"Roserust Hollow: A Door Between Worlds" by Azure Austin
"Perfection" by Sparsh Sharma
"Ache of Separation" by Ari
"Buried Promises" by Marisa Trevino
"To Honor the Gods" by Alexander Rojavin
"Aequitas" by Stephen Waites
"The Soul Guarded" by Steven Favreau
"Scripta Manent" by Tali Schlanger
"A Curious Legacy" by Kat Nicholls
"A Tragic Design" by Tracy Bradford
"The Weaver of Faces" by Theo James Taylor
"Amen" by Valeriana Shadowbright
"A swish of adventure" by Stephanie Toerien
"Fenrasenna" by Zach LaPietra
"Beneath the Ice, She Waits" by Zankhana Shah
"Forever Young, the Eternal Song of Vietnam" by Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao
The 2026 Youth Prize Longlist
For entrants aged 13 to 17. At World History Encyclopedia, we've enjoyed reading all 147 youth submissions this year! Each story was read by at least two reviewers (often three) from World History Encyclopedia and our dedicated reading team. It's always a delight to read stories from all over the world inspired by such a range of history and mythology, and even those stories that didn't make the longlist this year were read and enjoyed by the team.
Thank you to everyone who shared their creativity with us!
Jump to the adult prize longlist ↑
Listed in no particular order:
"Hidden Christians" by Sara Aso
"The Forbidden Kumari" by Adt
"And Beneath a Burning Sky, He Fell" by Alice Fowler
"The Voice That Will Never Be Silenced" by Aadhya Khandelwal
"Behind the Lines" by Alexandra Hoole
"Dawn" by Atharv Sharma
"Fateful Thing" by Amelie Lane
"The Brownie" by Anastasia Currie
"The Ink-Keeper’s Daughter" by Anaya Jain
"Rewind" by Sophie Willen
"Helen" by Maggie Liang
"The Whisper of the Well" by Samrat Singh Boparai
"Jack's girl" by Adiel Charis
"Dearest Iphigenia" by Rosalia
"Beneath the Tiger’s Gaze" by Yeseo Kwak
"The Light That Could Not Save" by Gunisha Kaur
"The Sepoy's curse " by Harshita Sinha
"The Last Meal" by Hawraa Hani Aboud
"La Pucelle - The Maid " by Isabella Cadman
"The Price Of Going Unnoticed" by Dorothy Geal
"A Whisper Can Outlast Stone " by Jing Zomok
"Fire's Lament" by Jiya Khandelwal
"Better Than the Last" by Julia Andrechek
"A Thread of Life" by Kanav Lall
"The Brush and The Green Onion" by Kaylee Sim Jia Lin
"Schwesterherz" by Kate Petchey
"Three truths in the garden of silence" by Jean-Lou.J
"Ashes of Passchendaele" by Mariah Hewawasam
"Perfection's Flaws" by Mary Kate Reagan-Wilson
"Not a feminist" by Matilda Robinson Bahillo
"The Bargain" by Isabel Rowan
"Witness To A Monster" by Izzy
"Sic Transit Gloria Mundi" by Philip Michael
"Memories of Broken Blood" by Prianna Kumar Singhania
"The Ocean's Ghost" by Rachel Cardoso
"Protesilaus" by Rebecca Turner
"The Day The Well Ran Dry" by Tandi Mwansa
"Bows & Arrows" by Yuseph Adamski
"The Silence" by Saanvi Gupta
"Half Boy Half Bull" by Siying Huang
"The Boy Who Brought The Sea" by Sofia Hertzog
"Where hope burns brightest" by Somya Jain
"My Red Shoes" by Sarah Balmer
"A hot cup of Ceylon Tea" by Tharaneya Suthakaran
"Elegy for Constantinople" by Elizabeth Fang
"The Song Beneath the Cotton " by Oluwatamilore (Tammy) Dawodu
"Ọmọ Ayé Méjì: Child of Two Worlds" by Teniola Balogun
"Only in Russia is Poetry Respected" by Tanushri Jayasuriya
"Haecceity" by Vaibhavi
"Wings of the Uncrowned" by Princess Wak Wak
"Stirring The Pot" by Mansa Singh
"Anathema" by Mirae Evereen
"The Lonely Mother" by Abby Le Masurier
"Ashes Between Us" by Zainab Salimi
"Your Benevolence" by Zara Rowlatt
"Our Afflicted Souls" by Zuleyma Sarceno Bravo
"A Promise" by Muhtasim Chowdhury
"Tiahahu" by Andri Ryel Nathanael
"The Ink that Defied Fire" by Naysa Dalmia
"The Queen Who Never Was" by Niamh Healy