Historical & Mythological Short Fiction

Ink of Ages Fiction Prize

World History Encyclopedia's international historical and mythological short story contest

Contest Rules

Welcome to the Ink of Ages Fiction Prize. Before submitting your work through our secure form, please carefully review the contest rules. Best of luck to our history and mythology writers worldwide!

For entrants 18 and over, submit a story between 1,500 words and 2,000 words. For entrants aged 13 to 17, submit a story between 800 and 1,000 words. This contest is free to enter.

Enter the Contest


Genre Guidelines


This contest accepts historical and mythological short stories. Submissions that follow the guidelines below will be read.


Historical Fiction

A story set at least fifty years ago, which takes the social, political, or cultural atmosphere of the past into consideration. Alternative history, events that could have happened, is allowed, but no time travel. Stories set in prehistory, before written records, are welcome if they plausibly evoke the lived experience, worldview, or oral traditions of that time.

Mythological Fiction

A story set in the past, at least fifty years ago for this contest, which clearly draw from a myth, mythic figure, or cultural belief e.g., Circe from Greek Mythology, or Ravana from Southeast Asia, yakkas from Sri Lankan folklore.

  • Stories do not need to be set in the time or place of the original myth.
  • Fantasy elements are welcome, but stories must remain rooted in specific mythological or folkloric traditions.
  • Global myths and oral traditions are encouraged; not all cultures had formal pantheons.

Excluded Topics

  • Stories that are pure fantasy without being rooted in genuine mythology or traditional beliefs are not accepted.
  • No time travel or stories set in the present day that discuss events or people in the past.
  • No content that is religiously, politically, or otherwise offensive.
  • Many of our reading team do not enjoy gore, so if it's over the top you might miss out on being longlisted.

Eligibility Criteria

Submissions must meet the following criteria to be considered.

The story must follow our definitions for historical fiction or mythological fiction and be set at least 50 years ago.
Only previously unpublished stories are eligible (your own blog or social feed is okay).
Entrants must be 18 or older for the main contest. Youth entries age 13–17 must be accompanied by parental consent. If you're not sure, take your age on the date of the submission deadline.
Submissions must be in English but can be from anywhere in the world.
No creative or academic nonfiction, poetry, or illustrations.
The story must be the author's sole work; no plagiarism or AI such as ChatGPT, Claude or any other Large Language Model. We understand some authors may use AI to varying degrees as part of their human writing process, such as grammar checkers. Please see the WHE AI policy for our approach.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed as long as the author informs us when the story is published elsewhere.
Each author may submit one story strictly between 1,500 and 2,000 words. Youth entries are strictly between 800–1,000 words. Your title isn't included in the word count.
Submissions must be accompanied by a third-person author biography (less than 100 words). An author bio is optional for the youth category.
Your story should work as a stand-alone piece. If you feel an introduction is essential, include it in the "inspiration" section of the submission form, not the story document.
A small number of footnotes or short glossary may be included with your submission (in the same file, not included in the word count) if it helps make your story more globally accessible. Excessive notes will not aid enjoyment for general readers and are discouraged.

Formatting Rules

Sounds picky, but we read a LOT of submissions and like to avoid eye strain! Several of our guest judges like to print out the shortlist so readability will help you out:

  • 12-point font, Times New Roman or Calibri, double or 1.5 line spacing.
  • Numbered pages
  • Word.doc / Google Docs preferred
  • DO put the story title at the top of the page, but NOT your name
  • Name your file with your story title followed by word count; this must be without hyphens e.g., The Last Days of Atlantis 1938, or Surpanakha's Lament 1843 (Google forms automatically adds a hyphen and author name, then we run some code that removes the hyphen and everything after it so submissions are anonymous when we read them.)


Your story file should be submitted without identifying data as the contest will be judged anonymously. Do not put your name anywhere in the file.

Full Terms & Conditions are available on our Enter the Contest page.


Enter the Contest

If you have any questions about the contest, please contact the team at fiction@worldhistory.org