Sundial Magazine for Historical Fiction
@sundialmagazine.bsky.social
Your home for short histfic on the web. Cover illustration by Hilary Ayshford. Subs are closed for now as we read through the submissions we received.
Our 6th and final nominee is the #poem "Andrew Goldsworthy's Touching North, 1989" by Merridawn Duckler
Please read and if you enjoy these stories and poems, share with others who might also enjoy.
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Please read and if you enjoy these stories and poems, share with others who might also enjoy.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
November 7, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Our 6th and final nominee is the #poem "Andrew Goldsworthy's Touching North, 1989" by Merridawn Duckler
Please read and if you enjoy these stories and poems, share with others who might also enjoy.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Please read and if you enjoy these stories and poems, share with others who might also enjoy.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Our 5th nominee is the #poem "Escape, Frederick!" by David Salner, which retells one story from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Sundial Magazine - Escape, Frederick!
Appeal by already free coworker
from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
I knew your Master Auld.
He was my boss on many jobs. I let him talk,
and always he’d convince himself
he was the k...
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November 7, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Our 5th nominee is the #poem "Escape, Frederick!" by David Salner, which retells one story from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Our 4th nominee is "The Emperor's Cloak" by Jo-Anne Rosen (first published in The Copperfield Review), which recounts the legend that Napoleon visited a Polish rabbi-seer to ask him what could be divined about his invasion of Russia.
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sites.google.com/view/sundial...
November 7, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Our 4th nominee is "The Emperor's Cloak" by Jo-Anne Rosen (first published in The Copperfield Review), which recounts the legend that Napoleon visited a Polish rabbi-seer to ask him what could be divined about his invasion of Russia.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Our 3rd nominee is "The Making of a Gimp'd Gut Minikin" by B.B. Schaikes, the story of a young Venetian musician who finds himself suddenly motherless in a London besieged by bubonic plague.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
November 7, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Our 3rd nominee is "The Making of a Gimp'd Gut Minikin" by B.B. Schaikes, the story of a young Venetian musician who finds himself suddenly motherless in a London besieged by bubonic plague.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Our 2nd nominees is "The Book of Hours" by Brooke Bianchi-Pennington, which tells the story of a talented monk who has just learned that there is now a printing press in his own town.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
November 7, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Our 2nd nominees is "The Book of Hours" by Brooke Bianchi-Pennington, which tells the story of a talented monk who has just learned that there is now a printing press in his own town.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Our 1st nominee is "The Gods Decide" by Joyce Bingham, with original art by Kaci Ellison. Set in the #RomanEmpire, this is the story of a fresco painter having a very bad day. #history
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sites.google.com/view/sundial...
November 7, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Our 1st nominee is "The Gods Decide" by Joyce Bingham, with original art by Kaci Ellison. Set in the #RomanEmpire, this is the story of a fresco painter having a very bad day. #history
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Sundial Magazine is proud to announce our 6 nominees for the @pushcartprize.bsky.social. All of the following stories and #poems were published in Sundial in 2025.
This year it was exceptionally difficult to choose only 6 to nominate from the many excellent submissions we received.
This year it was exceptionally difficult to choose only 6 to nominate from the many excellent submissions we received.
November 7, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Sundial Magazine is proud to announce our 6 nominees for the @pushcartprize.bsky.social. All of the following stories and #poems were published in Sundial in 2025.
This year it was exceptionally difficult to choose only 6 to nominate from the many excellent submissions we received.
This year it was exceptionally difficult to choose only 6 to nominate from the many excellent submissions we received.
We published so many incredible stories and poems this year that I am having a very hard time picking only 6 to nominate for the Pushcart Prize. There is no doubt that more than 6 deserve to be nominated.
November 3, 2025 at 8:51 PM
We published so many incredible stories and poems this year that I am having a very hard time picking only 6 to nominate for the Pushcart Prize. There is no doubt that more than 6 deserve to be nominated.
"'A printed book! I didn’t know we had a press here in Florence!'
'It’s new. They can print almost 15 books a day!'
De’Rossi scoffed. 15 books a day was ludicrous. Where was the art? The craft?"
Read "The Book of Hours", a new #story by Brooke Bianchi-Pennington
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
'It’s new. They can print almost 15 books a day!'
De’Rossi scoffed. 15 books a day was ludicrous. Where was the art? The craft?"
Read "The Book of Hours", a new #story by Brooke Bianchi-Pennington
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
November 2, 2025 at 9:05 PM
"'A printed book! I didn’t know we had a press here in Florence!'
'It’s new. They can print almost 15 books a day!'
De’Rossi scoffed. 15 books a day was ludicrous. Where was the art? The craft?"
Read "The Book of Hours", a new #story by Brooke Bianchi-Pennington
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
'It’s new. They can print almost 15 books a day!'
De’Rossi scoffed. 15 books a day was ludicrous. Where was the art? The craft?"
Read "The Book of Hours", a new #story by Brooke Bianchi-Pennington
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
"I do not know how I have become bewitched but it probably happened because I was not pious enough."
For Halloween, read "The Putnams of Salem", and original #histfic #shortstory by Greg Houle, with original art by Sandra Eckert #witchy
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
For Halloween, read "The Putnams of Salem", and original #histfic #shortstory by Greg Houle, with original art by Sandra Eckert #witchy
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
October 31, 2025 at 11:50 PM
"I do not know how I have become bewitched but it probably happened because I was not pious enough."
For Halloween, read "The Putnams of Salem", and original #histfic #shortstory by Greg Houle, with original art by Sandra Eckert #witchy
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
For Halloween, read "The Putnams of Salem", and original #histfic #shortstory by Greg Houle, with original art by Sandra Eckert #witchy
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Happy birthday Sundial! On this day in 2020 we launched. In the past 5 years we've published 101 original short stories, 30 original poems, 6 novelettes, 1 play, 2 novel excerpts, 43 flash stories, 2 curios, and 1 short story reprint. Here's one of my fav. stories:
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Sundial Magazine - Historia Calamitatum Mearum
Historia Calamitatum Mearum
The Story of Héloïse and Abelard
Nominated for the Pushcart Prize
by Donna Glee Williams
sites.google.com
October 23, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Happy birthday Sundial! On this day in 2020 we launched. In the past 5 years we've published 101 original short stories, 30 original poems, 6 novelettes, 1 play, 2 novel excerpts, 43 flash stories, 2 curios, and 1 short story reprint. Here's one of my fav. stories:
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
"I was 1 of 6 to be nubbed off at the Tyburn Tree. After our bodies fall, we belong to the Hangman. He sells our clothing to the poor. Our bodies he’ll fence to the surgeons to be anatomized."
Read "The Resurrection Men: 1722", a new #shortstory by James Vescovi
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Read "The Resurrection Men: 1722", a new #shortstory by James Vescovi
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
October 19, 2025 at 8:44 PM
"I was 1 of 6 to be nubbed off at the Tyburn Tree. After our bodies fall, we belong to the Hangman. He sells our clothing to the poor. Our bodies he’ll fence to the surgeons to be anatomized."
Read "The Resurrection Men: 1722", a new #shortstory by James Vescovi
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Read "The Resurrection Men: 1722", a new #shortstory by James Vescovi
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
"The gentleman handed her a gorgeous chitarrone, comically large in her small arms. Mother tuned, then skillfully plucked it. The English tittered at the scandalous display."
Read "The Making of a Gimp'd Gut Minikin", a new #histfic #shortstory by B. B. Schaikes.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Read "The Making of a Gimp'd Gut Minikin", a new #histfic #shortstory by B. B. Schaikes.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
September 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
"The gentleman handed her a gorgeous chitarrone, comically large in her small arms. Mother tuned, then skillfully plucked it. The English tittered at the scandalous display."
Read "The Making of a Gimp'd Gut Minikin", a new #histfic #shortstory by B. B. Schaikes.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Read "The Making of a Gimp'd Gut Minikin", a new #histfic #shortstory by B. B. Schaikes.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
"No Moses ever knew the swamps so well.
She read the tide like scripture, moved with care,
A conjure-woman swaggering out of hell,
Dragging God’s wrathful mandate through the air."
Read "Combahee Hymn", a new #poem by A. Z. Foreman about Harriet Tubman
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
She read the tide like scripture, moved with care,
A conjure-woman swaggering out of hell,
Dragging God’s wrathful mandate through the air."
Read "Combahee Hymn", a new #poem by A. Z. Foreman about Harriet Tubman
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Sundial Magazine - Combahee Hymn
June 2, 1863
We poled through silt and dusk, the water’s hush
As tight as prayer between the cypress knees.
Each reed, each frog-slick log, each sudden thrush
Seemed privy to the gush of destinies.
T...
sites.google.com
September 26, 2025 at 11:51 PM
"No Moses ever knew the swamps so well.
She read the tide like scripture, moved with care,
A conjure-woman swaggering out of hell,
Dragging God’s wrathful mandate through the air."
Read "Combahee Hymn", a new #poem by A. Z. Foreman about Harriet Tubman
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
She read the tide like scripture, moved with care,
A conjure-woman swaggering out of hell,
Dragging God’s wrathful mandate through the air."
Read "Combahee Hymn", a new #poem by A. Z. Foreman about Harriet Tubman
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
“In Jamaica, they hung immediately. Except the two women who ‘pled the belly’. Their reprieves were temporary, until the births. Formidable Mary.”
For Talk Like a Pirate Day, read "The Secret Life of Annie B." by Teresa Tennyson, an original #histfic #flash
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
For Talk Like a Pirate Day, read "The Secret Life of Annie B." by Teresa Tennyson, an original #histfic #flash
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
September 19, 2025 at 1:26 PM
“In Jamaica, they hung immediately. Except the two women who ‘pled the belly’. Their reprieves were temporary, until the births. Formidable Mary.”
For Talk Like a Pirate Day, read "The Secret Life of Annie B." by Teresa Tennyson, an original #histfic #flash
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
For Talk Like a Pirate Day, read "The Secret Life of Annie B." by Teresa Tennyson, an original #histfic #flash
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
"Before dawn, the famous composer leaves Venice. The gondola brushes the orphanage of Ospedale della Pietà. There, the composer looks away, his jaw tense."
Read "Four Seasons in Mantua, 1720 Circa", a new #flash #histfic by @sgscarso.bsky.social
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Read "Four Seasons in Mantua, 1720 Circa", a new #flash #histfic by @sgscarso.bsky.social
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
September 12, 2025 at 5:51 PM
"Before dawn, the famous composer leaves Venice. The gondola brushes the orphanage of Ospedale della Pietà. There, the composer looks away, his jaw tense."
Read "Four Seasons in Mantua, 1720 Circa", a new #flash #histfic by @sgscarso.bsky.social
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Read "Four Seasons in Mantua, 1720 Circa", a new #flash #histfic by @sgscarso.bsky.social
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
"You ask for a divorce as if you were asking me to pass you the salt. I reply: no, thank you.".
Read "A Conversation Over Breakfast", a new #histfic #shortstory set in East #Germany by @emmamvenables.bsky.social
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Read "A Conversation Over Breakfast", a new #histfic #shortstory set in East #Germany by @emmamvenables.bsky.social
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
September 10, 2025 at 10:03 PM
"You ask for a divorce as if you were asking me to pass you the salt. I reply: no, thank you.".
Read "A Conversation Over Breakfast", a new #histfic #shortstory set in East #Germany by @emmamvenables.bsky.social
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Read "A Conversation Over Breakfast", a new #histfic #shortstory set in East #Germany by @emmamvenables.bsky.social
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Call for submissions! Please read our guidelines, and then send us your best #histfic!
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Sundial Magazine - Submissions
Call for Fiction and Poetry Submissions is Open
Call for Visual Art is Open
sites.google.com
September 7, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Call for submissions! Please read our guidelines, and then send us your best #histfic!
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
"I wasn’t given a name at first—
only a number.
And even that,
they forgot to write down.
... They told us we were lucky—
a roof, a uniform, silence."
Read "Jelena's Book", a new #poem that takes place in the Jasenovac Concentration Camp. By Milanka Sulejic. #ww2
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
only a number.
And even that,
they forgot to write down.
... They told us we were lucky—
a roof, a uniform, silence."
Read "Jelena's Book", a new #poem that takes place in the Jasenovac Concentration Camp. By Milanka Sulejic. #ww2
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Sundial Magazine - Jelena's Book
Jasenovac Concentration Camp, early 1940s
I. The Girl Who Was Never Counted I wasn’t given a name at first— only a number. And even that, they forgot to write down.
I remember the scent of boiled ...
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September 6, 2025 at 1:38 PM
"I wasn’t given a name at first—
only a number.
And even that,
they forgot to write down.
... They told us we were lucky—
a roof, a uniform, silence."
Read "Jelena's Book", a new #poem that takes place in the Jasenovac Concentration Camp. By Milanka Sulejic. #ww2
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
only a number.
And even that,
they forgot to write down.
... They told us we were lucky—
a roof, a uniform, silence."
Read "Jelena's Book", a new #poem that takes place in the Jasenovac Concentration Camp. By Milanka Sulejic. #ww2
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
"Our labour lines the merchant’s purse,
...
our wool sacks are his plunder and his riches."
A precursor to the Labor Movement arose among textile workers in 18th century England. This Labor Day read "The Sergemaker's Rebellion, Tiverton" by Emma Phillips. #laborday
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
...
our wool sacks are his plunder and his riches."
A precursor to the Labor Movement arose among textile workers in 18th century England. This Labor Day read "The Sergemaker's Rebellion, Tiverton" by Emma Phillips. #laborday
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Sundial Magazine - The Sergemaker's Rebellion, Tiverton
It’s not the gold of the sun, the emerald grass,
nor russet hues of Devon earth
you seek, but serge.
Our labour lines the merchant’s purse,
the finery of France upon his back
our wool sacks are his p...
sites.google.com
September 1, 2025 at 5:48 PM
"Our labour lines the merchant’s purse,
...
our wool sacks are his plunder and his riches."
A precursor to the Labor Movement arose among textile workers in 18th century England. This Labor Day read "The Sergemaker's Rebellion, Tiverton" by Emma Phillips. #laborday
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
...
our wool sacks are his plunder and his riches."
A precursor to the Labor Movement arose among textile workers in 18th century England. This Labor Day read "The Sergemaker's Rebellion, Tiverton" by Emma Phillips. #laborday
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
“Comrade Rotaru, your son is an enemy of the state. And you will help me bring him back."
Read "The Visit", a new #histfic #shortstory by Alexandra Magearu that takes place during Ceaușescu's totalitarian regime in Romania.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Read "The Visit", a new #histfic #shortstory by Alexandra Magearu that takes place during Ceaușescu's totalitarian regime in Romania.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
August 24, 2025 at 11:17 PM
“Comrade Rotaru, your son is an enemy of the state. And you will help me bring him back."
Read "The Visit", a new #histfic #shortstory by Alexandra Magearu that takes place during Ceaușescu's totalitarian regime in Romania.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Read "The Visit", a new #histfic #shortstory by Alexandra Magearu that takes place during Ceaușescu's totalitarian regime in Romania.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
"He will tell his wife that he doesn’t dream about it anymore. It won’t be true. But it will be what she needs to hear."
Read "There Will Still Be Minnesota: A Tale of Convoy PQ-17" by Larissa Sprecher
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Read "There Will Still Be Minnesota: A Tale of Convoy PQ-17" by Larissa Sprecher
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
August 21, 2025 at 8:58 PM
"He will tell his wife that he doesn’t dream about it anymore. It won’t be true. But it will be what she needs to hear."
Read "There Will Still Be Minnesota: A Tale of Convoy PQ-17" by Larissa Sprecher
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Read "There Will Still Be Minnesota: A Tale of Convoy PQ-17" by Larissa Sprecher
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
This post is to inform you of a scam targeting writers. Pay-to-publish (in which writers pay for editing services) can be a legitimate service, but now scammers are posing as editors/publishers and using "pig butchering" methods. Please read this, authors, and beware.
archive.md/WaHIp
archive.md/WaHIp
archive.md
July 21, 2025 at 10:01 PM
This post is to inform you of a scam targeting writers. Pay-to-publish (in which writers pay for editing services) can be a legitimate service, but now scammers are posing as editors/publishers and using "pig butchering" methods. Please read this, authors, and beware.
archive.md/WaHIp
archive.md/WaHIp
"For a while, Jacques and the other priests weren’t troubled by the Revolution."
In honor of #bastilleday, read "Not Being Equal" by Mary Byrne, an original #histfic #shortstory published by Sundial Magazine for Historical Fiction.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
In honor of #bastilleday, read "Not Being Equal" by Mary Byrne, an original #histfic #shortstory published by Sundial Magazine for Historical Fiction.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
July 14, 2025 at 2:24 PM
"For a while, Jacques and the other priests weren’t troubled by the Revolution."
In honor of #bastilleday, read "Not Being Equal" by Mary Byrne, an original #histfic #shortstory published by Sundial Magazine for Historical Fiction.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
In honor of #bastilleday, read "Not Being Equal" by Mary Byrne, an original #histfic #shortstory published by Sundial Magazine for Historical Fiction.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
Subs are open! Send us your best #histfic. Please read our submission guidelines.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
July 12, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Subs are open! Send us your best #histfic. Please read our submission guidelines.
sites.google.com/view/sundial...
sites.google.com/view/sundial...