minoanmiss | The People Who Beat Me

At the _Ink of Ages_ competition! I can't wait to read these.

https://www.worldhistory.org?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=2895f6020d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_02_19_11_50&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-2895f6020d-246027025&mc_cid=2895f6020d&mc_eid=UNIQID

** 2025 Winners
------------------------------------------------------------

Ink of Ages Fiction Prize

** Dear Reader
------------------------------------------------------------

We're excited to announce the official winners of the Ink of Ages Fiction Prize
(https://fictionprize.worldhistory.org/2025-results?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=2895f6020d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_02_19_11_50&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-2895f6020d-246027025&mc_cid=2895f6020d&mc_eid=UNIQID)
, now in its second year, an international writing competition celebrating
historical and mythology-inspired short fiction, sponsored by Oxford University
Press
(https://global.oup.com/academic/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=2895f6020d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_02_19_11_50&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-2895f6020d-246027025&mc_cid=2895f6020d&mc_eid=UNIQID)
.

Congratulations to our winners, and thank you to everyone who entered a story. We
enjoyed reading all 511 of them. This was the first year we had both adult and youth
categories and we were blown away by the quality and variety of submissions!

All shortlisted stories were scored for literary merit, originality and creativity,
historical interest, and impact and enjoyment. The judges were impressed by all of
the shortlisted stories, and decisions were even tougher than last year.
"These are wonderfully vivid time capsules and mythological dreamscapes,
transporting readers to unexpected places in just a few well-crafted pages."
—Stefan Vranka, Judge & Oxford University Press Editor

You can read these short stories in full for free on the Ink of Ages website
(https://fictionprize.worldhistory.org/2025-results?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=2895f6020d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_02_19_11_50&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-2895f6020d-246027025&mc_cid=2895f6020d&mc_eid=UNIQID)
!

** Adult Prize Winners
------------------------------------------------------------
1st: "Zannanza" by Anna McHugh
2nd: "Møya" by Senthan Thomas Sivasangar
3rd: "Shining Light" by Richard Garcka
Highly Commended:
"Federico" by Joao Costa
"The Deluge" by Abaan Zaidi

** Youth Prize Winners
------------------------------------------------------------
1st: "To Forget" by Sophia Campbell
2nd: "The Defeat of the Emperor" by Cassandra Hughes
3rd: "Maidens, Men and Raging Seas" by Prisha Roy Mahapatra
Highly Commended:
"Shattered Souls, Eternal Light" by Faaris Jamali
"The Weaver" by Jenna Davis
We’re enormously grateful to our reading team and our judges, who generously shared
their time and expertise with us. Judges were:
* Timothy Bent (Oxford University Press)
* J.F. Fox (author)
* Helen Nde (author and mythology researcher)
* Stefan Vranka (Oxford University Press)
* Wendy Orr (author)
* David Tollen (author and speaker)
* Louise M. Pryke (historian and author)
* Taabir Asad (Delhi University)
* Joanne Taylor (World History Encyclopedia)

We hope you like the winning stories! You can also see the fantastic excerpts from
the shortlisted stories
(https://fictionprize.worldhistory.org/2025-results?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=2895f6020d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_02_19_11_50&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-2895f6020d-246027025&mc_cid=2895f6020d&mc_eid=UNIQID#:~:text=The%202025%20Prize%20Shortlist)
.
Best wishes,

** Joanne Taylor