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Looking for a sense of History?
Look no further! The Chaucer Awards are here to bring stories from anytime before 1750.
You have until August 31st to submit your story and enter the 2025 CIBAs!
Named for Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales (and Name giver of a certain rooster named Chanticleer), This Division was our first Historical Fiction category. Due to us receiving so many amazing Historical Fiction submissions, we had to split it into a few more Divisions. For Post 1750 History, see The Goethe Awards. For 20th and 21st Century Wartime History, see The Hemingway Awards. For Western and Americana History, see The Laramie Awards.
Let’s Take a look back in more recent history at the Grand Prize Winners of the Chaucer Award!
Maid of Honour: Anne Boleyn at Margaret of Austria’s Court
Book 1 of the Anne Boleyn Chronicles
By Rozsa Gaston
Our newest Grand Prize Winner has a release date for Early August, and we are very excited to see it come out!
Anne Boleyn’s path to Henry VIII’s heart—and the throne—begins not in France, but at the court of Europe’s most powerful woman, Margaret of Austria.
Anne enters the world of the Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands as one of Margaret’s eighteen maids of honour, who thrive under the guidance of their highly intelligent ruler.
Anne struggles with cliques and jealousies at court, and when Erasmus of Rotterdam arrives with ideas of reform, Anne starts to question tradition and sets her sights high, determined to leave her mark on the world.
But political machinations intervene, cutting short Anne’s time at Margaret’s court, and launching her to France.
Armed with the skills learned under the Netherlands’ brilliant ruler, Anne inches closer to her destiny…
Can she achieve her ambitious desires? Will Margaret’s formidable example influence Anne’s future?
Or will this young maid struggle to blossom in a man’s world…?
The Merchant From Sepharad
By James Hutson-Wiley
Joshua Ibn Elazar, the eager son of a Jewish merchant, travels to al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule) to prove himself in his father’s business. But he finds an unwelcoming, degrading society waiting for him, and begins a journey of misfortune and anger in James Hutson-Wiley’s historical fiction novel, The Merchant from Sepharad.
Shortly after arriving in the city of Lishbunah, al-Andalus, Joshua is tricked out of the gold for his living expenses. Worse yet, he learns that Jews in Lishbunah suffer under oppressive laws, holding far less status than Muslim citizens. He can only find help in Lishbuna’s Jewish community, meeting Rabbi Hiyya al-Daudi and his son Yaish, who house and feed him.
They tell him that his father’s colleague, Essua, who was to help Joshua manage a shipment of flax and sugar, has been arrested. Though Essua is eventually released, Joshua fails to secure storage for his goods, as the makhzan (warehouse) he rented is given to a Muslim merchant instead. In his fury at the city’s prejudice, he sets fire to the makhzan, and is forced to flee.
Daughter of Hades
By Mack Little
Mack Little’s historical fiction novel Daughter of Hades explores the lives of slaves during the age of pirates.
Little’s research shines in her thoughtful presentation of the Caribbean islands, the escaped slaves who found freedom amongst them, the lives of buccaneers and maroons, and their daring and dangerous exploits.
On the first page, Little introduces us to Geraldine, or “Dinny”, running for her life from her owner, Owen Craig, who has just raped her.
Dinny’s father had arranged for her to be removed from the plantation before Craig molested her, but he’d miscalculated Craig’s lust. Dinny is rescued by her twin brother, Jimmie, and Leixiang, and taken to the Hades, a pirate ship captained by the buccaneer Duff.
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.
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?
Thank you for celebrating our Chaucer Hall of Fame Winners with us!
Remember to add your next reads to your StoryGraph or Goodreads account! Now that you’re set on your next five reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Chaucer Winners is Look no further! The Chaucer Awards are here to bring stories from anytime before 1750.
Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!
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
You know you want it…
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