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History is alive and well

because of authors like you!

The Palace of Versailles, built in 1631. The Chaucer Awards accepts work from anytime before the 1750s

The Chaucer Book Awards division is one of Chanticleer’s original book awards divisions.

A picture of Geoffery Chaucer as a white man with a gray goatee with the words "Chaucer Awards" across the bottom

 

Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is considered one of the greatest works in the English language. It was among the first non-secular books written in Middle English to be printed.

A woodcut from William Caxton’s second edition 0f the Canterbury Tales printed in 1483

Click on the link above for some interesting tidbits and facts about Geoffrey Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales (from which our dear Chanticleer hales from).

The First Great Historical Division – The Goethe Book Awards

After receiving an overwhelming amount of entries into the 2016 Chaucer Book Awards, the judges requested that the CIBAs divide the historical fiction into two divisions: one for pre-1750s historical fiction and a separate one for post-1750s historical fiction, the Goethe Book Awards. 

We gave this new division the name: The Goethe Book Awards for post-1750s historical fiction for the 2016 Chanticleer International Book Awards. You can read about the interesting events that happened during Goethe’s lifetime with the link below:

“His lifetime, spanning some of the most monumental disruptions in modern history, is referred to as a single whole, the Goethezeit, or Age of Goethe.” The New Yorker magazine, Adam Kirch Feb. 1, 2016

 

Post 1750s Historical Fiction Award

Our next post will share how we came to offer the Hemingway Book Awards for Wartime Fiction – a split from the Goethe Book Awards for post-1750s historical fiction.

Don’t let History leave you behind!

Join the narrative and send us your work by July 31 to enter the 2023 CIBAs

History shows us how we got to where we are today. At Chanticleer, we look to better understand the past and discover your book featuring pre-history, ancient history, Classical, world history (non-western culture), Dark Ages and Medieval Europe, Renaissance, Elizabethan, Tudor, 1600s, we will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

Let’s celebrate with a look down the Hall of Fame for Grand Prize Winners of the Chaucer Awards

DAUGHTER OF HADES
By Mack Little

From the blurb: Dinny and her brother make their escape from slavery on the pirate ship the Hades. It is the last place in the world Dinny imagined she’d meet the love of her life. Lei, a Chinese exile, recognizes Dinny as the woman of his destiny. But their new life is shattered when her former owner seeks his revenge. With the help of their friends, family, and colleagues, Dinny and Lei will face the challenges of finding love and happiness in the Caribbean world of the 17th century.

A review for this book is forthcoming! You can learn more about Mack Little here!


Too Soon the Night Cover

TOO SOON THE NIGHT
By James Conroyd Martin

Too Soon the Night by James Conroyd Martin shows the thrilling heights to which Empress Theodora rose and the crushing depths to which she fell, in the latter half of her life. This story picks up from Fortune’s Child, the first volume of this epic duology.

This half of Theodora’s incredible journey opens at its close – as she succumbs to the cancer that drove her to dictate the record of her life. She left the task of recording her meteoric rise from actress to empress in the hands of the scribe and historian Stephen, even though she imprisoned him for several years out of fear that he would reveal her greatest secrets.

But as much as Stephen should hate her for her cruelty, he has his own axe to grind against the man who would slander Theodora after her death with a scurrilous character assassination disguised as biography. So he takes up his pen and continues his recording of – if not Theodora’s unvarnished truth – at least something closer than whatever her enemies would conjure to blacken her name.

Read more here!


BIRD IN A SNARE
By N.L. Holmes

Politics is a deadly game in the days of Kings and their competing 14th-century B.C. Egyptian factions. Official diplomat, Lord Hani, is on a royal assignment when he discovers even the king’s motives are suspect. Hani begins to fear for the welfare of his family and himself, as he gets a sinking feeling that the hunter has become the hunted. He’s the live bait, the Bird In A Snare.

Can Lord Hani find out who is responsible for the mysterious assassinations and the shifting armies’ alliances before becoming the one they target next?

The sands under the royal family’s feet are precarious. The investigation must be thorough but also quick. There is no time to waste in this seething era where a wave of change could bring dire consequences. Lord Hani knows he must stop the murderer to save himself and his family, but can he also act to protect the larger target, the fate of the Egyptian New Kingdom?

Read more here!

Cover of Bird in a Snare by N.L. Holmes


FORTUNE’S CHILD: A Novel of Empress Theodora
By James Conroyd Martin
Overall Grand Prize Winner

James Conroyd Martin brings to life one woman we should all know better in his multi-award-winning, epic novel, Fortune’s Child: A Novel of Empress Theodora.

Like Cleopatra, Empress Theodora was a legend in her own time. And also, like Queen Cleopatra before her, Empress Theodora’s life and accomplishments were distorted and maligned by the male historians of her own time. Even after death, men who couldn’t bear or couldn’t believe that a woman, particularly a woman of the lower classes as Theodora was, could possibly have accomplished the things she did or wield the power she had.

Fortune’s Child, the first book of a projected duology, Theodora, near death, determines to leave behind an accurate chronicle of her life and work. She’s desperate to get a step ahead of the official biography already being written by a man who hates her, everything she came from, and everything she stands for.

Read more here!


Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Chaucer Winners is to submit today!

The Chanticleer Int'l Book Awards Overall Grand Prize sticker for the CIBAs

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

You know you want it…

Are you a Chanticleer Author who has some good news to share? Let us know! We’re always looking for a reason to crow about Chanticleerians! Reach out with your news to info@ChantiReviews.com