Welcome -

Looking Ahead to HNS2027

The next Historical Novel Society North America Conference will be held at the gorgeous and historic
Omni Hotel in Pittsburgh, PA, from June 17 to 19, 2027.

Make sure you've signed up here to receive our emails to get all the latest conference information as soon as it's available.

Lobby of Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, PA

Image courtesy of Omni William Penn

Where to Get Reviews for Your Historical Fiction

Once you have published a historical novel, you'll likely want to find outlets to review your book. However, knowing where to go can be a daunting exercise. The HNSNA team has put together this guide with over 15 outlets for you to make this activity easier. Fill in the form below to download the guide.

Show Your Love for Historical Fiction!

New in 2025! Share your love for HNS and historical fiction by purchasing a mug, T-shirt, sweatshirt, or mouse pad from the HNSNA Conference Store. The selections shown below are just some of the many options available in a wide variety of colors. Have your purchases delivered directly to your address! Then bring whatever you purchased along to the conference and be part of the celebration of historical fiction and the people who write it.

All proceeds from store sales go directly toward the conference’s programming and outreach initiatives. Thank you for supporting our nonprofit!

Short Story Anthology

We are thrilled to announce the names of the winner and the 11 finalists of the HNSNA's first Short Story Contest. Congratulations to Kurt Larsen the Grand Prize Winner for the HNSNA Short Story Contest for his story A Hardboiled Day's Night! Kurt's story, along with stories by 11 more authors are included in the HNS2025 Short Story Anthology.

Print and ebook editions are available for purchase.

Meet Our Board

Meet the seven amazing individuals organizing HNS2027 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 17-19, 2027.

Keep Connected

Join our mailing list to receive monthly updates & information about upcoming conferences.

Become a Sponsor

Interested in sponsoring HNS2027? Contact us: hnsna@hns-conference.com

The HNSNA Blog

Read articles submitted by historical novelists! Explore the craft of writing historical fiction, including research tips, plotting techniques, character development, time periods, setting descriptions, and more!

Three Elements of a Great Historical Series Detective

Guest Post by Elizabeth Springer — My favorite kind of novel to read is a historical mystery. There are lots of great things […]

Cookware Across Centuries

Guest Post by Sara Dahmen — Everybody eats. No matter what period we write in, our characters need to eat and drink. Someone […]

Finding the Soul of a Place by Pamela Pan

Finding the Soul of a Place: Bringing History to Life

Guest Post by Pamela Pan — A well-written historical novel makes us see, hear, and taste a bygone time and place. […]

Why the Little Things Matter by Sarah Stegall

Why the Little Things Matter: The Small Details That Make Historical Fiction Feel Alive

Guest Post by Sarah Stegall — One of the things I love most about writing historical fiction is how quickly […]

The Emotional Punch of Period Details

And How to Use Them to Deepen Your Characters Guest Post by Martha Conway — Most of us settle into […]

Preserving Research Materials from Grandma’s Attic

Guest Post by Janis Robinson Daly — In our digital age of record keeping, photography, e-books, AI, and privacy controls, what will […]

How to Write Multiple Timelines that Captivate Your Readers

How to Write Dual Timelines that Captivate Your Readers

Guest Post by Jeannette de Beauvoir — Here’s the nightmare scenario: You write a novel with more than one timeline, because . . […]

Research with Purpose: Finding the Story Inside History

Guest Post by Maryka Biaggio — I write historical fiction about real people, and I’m often asked where I find my subjects. […]

Historical Ways to Kill Off a Character

Guest Post by Sally Bays — There can be something decidedly satisfying about killing off a literary character. While some authors […]

Add Texture to Your Novels with Three Unconventional Resources

Guest Post by Abby Murphy — If you’re researching a historical novel, chances are you’ve exhausted the usual sources: scholarly texts, articles on JSTOR, […]

The Advantage of Time-Slip and Dual-Time Novels

Guest Post by Marj Charlier — As historical fiction writers, we are challenged to keep twenty-first century sensibilities and vocabulary out of our stories set […]

Parasols, Purging, and Progress: Why Medicine is an Incredible Narrative Engine for Historical Fiction

Guest Post by Nora Hill — Throughout history, empires rise and collapse. Borders expand and contract. Technology advances. Social mores reform. But fundamental human experiences remain unchanged: life and death, […]

Beyond the Library: Material Culture at the Antique Fair

Guest Post by Megan Easley-Walsh — It is no secret that writing historical fiction demands research. Everything from major plot […]

Six Ways to Write Characters Readers Will Remember

Guest Post by Clara Hanley – It’s easy to think of plots that are memorable—movies or books that stick with you […]

When Memory Becomes Story | Guest Post by Pamela Dunnam

Writing Historical Fiction Through Memoirs: When Memory Becomes Story

Guest Post by Pamela Dunnam – Writing historical fiction is often sparked by an interesting historical tidbit that inspires a […]

Master the Art of Juicy Character Arguments

Let Sparks Fly with Powerful Dialogue Guest Post by Jacquelin Cangro – A few weeks ago, I was editing a […]

Dead Characters Can’t Marry

How to Avoid Historical Impossibilities in Fiction Guest Blog Post by Carole Penfield – Dead characters can’t marry. It sounds obvious—almost laughable—yet […]

Sensory Research: A Must-Have for HistFic

Guest Post by Jillian Forsberg – I am kneeling next to a lion’s cage. The lion is female, tawny, though […]

Writing the Historical Saga

Guest Post by Hope C. Tarr – Ah, the Historical Saga. Sweeping, atmospheric, and often spanning multiple generations, epic novels like The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (700+ […]

The Herbalist’s Guide for Historical Fiction

We read about belladonna and henbane and wormwood all the time as tools used by nefarious poisoners and jilted lovers alike, but there are quite a few nondescript ‘remedies’ out there to help our characters along with their plots and troubles.

Mapping Your Setting

It can take some digging, but maps contain a wealth of information to ground our historical narrative in the proper time and place.

Start Where You Love to Be: (Local) Place in Historical Fiction

If you choose place as the starting point of your writing, then you can tunnel through time to a moment from which your story unfurls, and so much more exfoliates. In addition to narrowing the scope of time travel, a sense of place delivers the raw materials for world-building.

Finding Feminism in Mythic Reversals

Creating feminist novels from the reinterpretation of Greek myths has grown into a significant subgenre in recent years. These novels take on issues such as shaming and villainizing women for the “sin” of being violated or refusing to be silent. Why this strong connection between feminism and Greek myth?

Practical Perseverance

I have no idea what will happen next but I know now, life won’t ever make it easy to write.

Vintage Newspapers: A Window on the Past

Guest Post by Marjorie DeLuca – In August of 2022, I was counting down the days to the HNS UK […]

Setting: The Oft Neglected Cousin to Plot, Character and Dialogue

Guest Post by Terence Rundel West – Somewhere between books two and three in my writing, a friend steered me onto […]

Look No Further Than Those in Your Family

Guest Post by Ora Smith – Have you considered using stories or unusual events that happened in your ancestors’ lives […]

It’s Problematic: On writing historical fiction without “fixing” history

Guest Post by Erin Bartels – My debut novel, We Hope for Better Things, was a triple timeline story with […]

Peeking Over the Language Barrier

Guest Post by T. Newyear Yeager – Write what you know, we all hear. As writers of historical fiction, however, […]

Where’s the Needle in the Haystack? 5 Tips to Keep Track of Your Historical Research

Guest Post by Alison Lloyd – ‘‘What year did he say that?’ My editor was working through my non-fiction manuscript. […]

Character Descriptions as Nuance for Character Development

Guest Post by Kelly Urgan – Before diving into the heart of the matter, here are some quick definitions. Character […]

A Few Words About Conflict

Guest Post by Patricia Bracewell – Because conflict usually causes agonizing disruption in our own lives, it is something we […]

The Joys of Mentoring

Maryka Biaggio – For many years now, I’ve offered mentoring to early-career writers and novelists, and I’ve found it a […]

Historical Military/Nautical/Adventure

Ten Novels By HNS2025 Conference Attendees We’re thrilled to randomly select these ten novels nominated by conference attendees to feature […]

Historical Thrillers/Suspense/Horror

Ten Novels By HNS2025 Conference Attendees We’re thrilled to randomly select these ten novels nominated by conference attendees to feature […]

Complicating a Darling of Women’s History by Making the Political Personal

Guest Post by Malayna Evans – They say, “kill your darlings.” But what if you just want to take a […]

Picking Your Poison

Guest Post by K. K. Cathers – Throughout history, poison has fascinated and terrified us in equal measure, both in […]

How To Write a Believable Villain

Guest Post by Amanda Cockrell – In truth, I prefer not to write about a villain. I like an antagonist […]

Medieval Monarchy on the Move – A Cautionary Tale

Guest Post by Lee Swanson – It is the first day of October of the year 1278, and the protagonist […]

Historical Fantasy/Alternate History/Time Travel

Ten Novels By HNS2025 Conference Attendees We’re thrilled to randomly select these ten novels nominated by conference attendees to feature […]

Historical Romance

Ten Novels By HNS2025 Conference Attendees We’re thrilled to randomly select these ten novels nominated by conference attendees to feature […]

How I Learned About the HNSNA Conference –

Board Member Maryka Biaggio The first HNSNA Conference I attended was in San Diego in 2011. Months earlier I had […]

Historical Mystery

Ten Novels By HNS2025 Conference Attendees We’re thrilled to randomly select these ten novels nominated by conference attendees to feature […]

Whose Voice Is It Anyway? Historical Accuracy Without the “Info Dump”

Guest Post by Deborah Williams – Imagine you’re walking with a friend and you see a self-driving Tesla coming towards […]

Free Blacks in Antebellum Philadelphia

Guest Post by Indra Zuno – When researching my novel, Freedom Dues, I was surprised to discover there were free […]

General Historical/Biographical Novels

Ten Novels By HNS2025 Conference Attendees We’re thrilled to randomly select these ten novels nominated by conference attendees to feature […]

Meet Christopher Cevasco: Programming Chair of HNS2025

Chris Cevasco answers questions about the conference theme, talks about how you can apply to present at HNS2025, and shares […]

Making Connections at the HNSNA Conference

Guest Post by Tanya Williams – What happens at an HNS conference doesn’t always stay at an HNS conference, but […]

Historical Verse Novels: Not Just for Kids

Guest Post by Kip Wilson – The verse novel is just what the name sounds like: it’s a novel written […]

Searching for Clues: Researching Historical Fiction

Guest Post by T. S. Allan – The goal of all historical fiction writers is to create a story they […]

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Donations to HNSNA are tax-deductible and help us cover administrative costs and fund programming initiatives to foster an inclusive historical fiction community.

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