The Best New Historical Fiction Short Stories
Historical fiction short stories, put simply, transport readers back in time, to just about any point in human history. If you’re thinking, That’s a lot of years to explore, you’d be right! That’s exactly why historical fiction is such a rich genre. Browse any historical fiction shelf in a bookstore and you’ll see it crammed full of captivating stories, from classics like Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha to more recent bestselling hits like Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See.
And the best part of this genre? There’s always more history to uncover, and more historical fiction stories to explore. So whether you’re looking to take a stroll with the gentlemen and ladies of the Victorian Era, or roam the seas with Vikings in 800 AD, you’re bound to find what you want.
Looking for some historical fiction stories?
You’re in luck! Reedsy’s weekly short story competition has been running for more than three years, and in the time since, we’ve read and judged a wealth of heart-stoppingly good stories. On this page, you’ll find a collection of the historical fiction stories that have been submitted to our competition. Check out the top of the page for the entries shortlisted by our panel of judges, and which are the best historical fiction stories from the hundreds of submissions each week.
If you like a writer that you encounter, don’t forget to click ‘follow’ to tag along on their adventures into the past, in whatever stories they write in the future! And if you find inspiration to write your own story in these narratives? Join us and submit a story to our short story competition. You might be the one to walk away with the next cash prize — plus a shot at publication in Prompted, our new literary magazine!