Hearts Through History Romance Writers is delighted to reveal the finalists for the Published division of our Romance Through The Ages Contest, for Historical Romance.
Finalists were informed via email. Five categories/time-periods had sufficient entries to proceed.
Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance
Georgian/Victorian
Post-Victorian/World Wars/Modern
Regency
Time-Travel/Paranormal/Fantasy
To all the finalists, congratulations, and we wish you the best in the final round. Winners will be announced on December 15!
Huge THANKS to our tireless first-round judges and coordinators. We could not run this contest without you. Mwah!
Hearts Through History Romance Writers is delighted to reveal the finalists for the Un-Published division of our Romance Through The Ages Contest, focusing on Historical Romance. (The Published Division ends Sept 1)
Finalists were informed via email. Four categories/time periods had sufficient entries to proceed.
*Georgian/Victorian
*Post-Victorian/World Wars/Modern
*Regency
*Time-Travel/Paranormal/Fantasy
To all the finalists, congratulations, and we wish you the best in the final round. Winners will be announced on Halloween!
Hi all,
We're coming down to the wire.
Unpublished scores are due in a little over a week. Aug 22.
Published scores are due on Sept 1.
I still have 14 judges who have sent back NOTHING and have 2-6 entries to read. Some confirmed receipt, and that's it.
Anyone want to volunteer to read more?
Just giving everyone the breakdown of the RTTA Contest this year vs last.
Unpublished Division
2025 - We had 22 entries & 37 volunteer first round judges.
2026 - We have 29 entries & 34 volunteer first round judges. We ALWAYS need more judges.
The entries this year are from 6 countries:
USA, (14 states) Canada (3 territories), Germany, Saudi Arabia, Sweden & Australia.
12 entries were from HHRW members/17 were from non-members.
Total revenue generated for the chapter:$665
Published Division
2025 - We had 28 entries & 32 volunteer first round judges.
2026 - We have 37 entries & 37 volunteer first round judges. We ALWAYS need more judges.
The entries this year are from 5 countries:
USA, (17 states) Canada (1 territory), South Africa, Ireland & Australia.
6 entries were from HHRW members/31 were from non-members.
Total revenue generated for the chapter:$835
Contest total revenue in 2026: $1500 we can put toward AGM speakers, etc. 😀
We are officially closed for entries in both divisions for thie year.
Just updating everyone. The unpublished Division closed with the following 29 entries:
AMR - Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance. (1 entry)
REV - Revolution/Enlightenment (1 entry)
CWW - Colonial/Western/Civil War (1 entry)
GVI - Georgian/Victorian (9 entries)
PVW - Post-Victorian/World Wars/Modern (5 entries)
REG - Regency (8 entries)
TTP - Time-Travel/Paranormal/Fantasy (6 entries)
Three categories won't move forward: AMR (Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance), REV (Revolution/Enlightenment), and CWW (Colonial/Western/Civil War). I'm going to check if any of those can be moved into another category (CWW normally can, REV may also) and see if the authors are open to that. If not, they will be refunded.
Last year, we had 22 entries. So, both divisions had more entries this year. I did really push on social media this year, so glad that's paid off.
I will be sending out the judging assignments and the category coordinator instructions by the end of the week.
Unpublished authors, send in the first 25 pages of your MS to our contest!
Just updating everyone. The Published Division closed with the following 37 entries:
AMR - Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance. (5 entries)
GVI - Georgian/Victorian (9 entries)
PVW - Post-Victorian/World Wars/Modern (4 entries)
REG - Regency (14 entries)
TTP - Time-Travel/Paranormal/Fantasy (5 entries)
Two categories won't move forward: REV (Revolution/Enlightenment) and CWW (Colonial/Western/Civil War).
Last year, which was the second year we had a published division, we had 27 entries. I will be sending out the judging assignments and the category coordinator instructions tonight and tomorrow.
If you're entering as a published author (© 2025) upload your MS by midnight on Sunday! There's just 5 days left. 
https://www.heartsthroughhistory.com/rtta-contest
Unpublished authors still have the entire month of June in which to enter.
#historicalromancecontest #WritingContest #HeartsThroughHistory #romancenovels #historicalromanceauthors
Did you know we have been part of the Reedsy Best Writing Contests for the last 2 years? Make sure to enter soon! Published division closes in 3 weeks, Unpublished division closes on June 30.
https://www.heartsthroughhistory.com/rtta-contest
We also need first round judges for both published & unpublished!
We are happy to announce 🎉all final-round judges for the Published division of the RTTA contest. They will be judging 2 books each (14 finalists). The 7 winners will be announced mid-December! Will your book, published in 2025, be one of them?
#historicalromance #historicalromancecontest #writingcontest
