The Chaucer Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in pre-1750s Historical Fiction. The Chaucer Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
The Chaucer Book Awards competition is named for Geoffrey Chaucer the author of the legendary Canterbury Tales. The work is considered to be one of the greatest works in the English language. It was among the first non-secular books written in Middle English to be printed in 1483.
Chanticleer International Book Awards is seeking for the best books featuring Pre-1750s Historical Fiction, including pre-history, ancient history, Classical, world history (non-western culture), Dark Ages and Medieval Europe, Renaissance, Elizabethan, Tudor, 1600s, we will put them to the test and choose the best among them.
The other three Historical Fiction Genres are the Laramie Awards for Americana Fiction, the Goethe Awards for Late Historical Fiction, and the Hemingway Awards for 20th c. Wartime Fiction.
1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners were announced at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony by James Conroyd Martin on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
This is the OFFICIAL 2022 LIST of the CHAUCER BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the CHAUCER Grand Prize Winner.
Congratulations to the FIRST PLACE CATEGORY WINNERS of the CHAUCER BOOK AWARDS for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction, a division of the 2022 CIBAs.
PJ Adair – The Viking Girl
Mack Little – Daughter of Hades
Donna Scott – The Tacksman’s Daughter
Rozsa Gaston – Anne and Louis Forever Bound
Philip Remus – Gods of Men: Where the Spartans Are Made
Eric Schumacher Ramirez – The Hummingbird and The Serpent
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 CHAUCER Awards is:
Mack Little, author of
Daughter of Hades
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!
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A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in June. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items.
ALL the WINNERS: You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.
Grand Prize Division Winners will receive a customized digital badge. When we receive it from our graphic artist, we will also post here and in the Grand Prize Division Winners Official Posting.
Thank you for participating in the 2022 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.
We are deeply honored and excited to continue to announce the 2020 Winners of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs) with our second of three official postings.
The winners were recognized at a special CIBAs ceremony held on June 5th, 2021 in-person and by ZOOM webinars based at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash.
The CIBA announcements were made LIVE with Chanticleerians participating and interacting from around the globe and North America.
We cheered on the CIBA Premier Finalists with our bubbly of choice from wherever we were Zooming!
Btw, Kiffer’s favorite Champagne!
We want to thank all of the CIBA judges who read each and every entry and then comment, rate, and rank within each of the 24 CIBA Divisions. Without your labors of love for books, the Chanticleer International Book Awards would not exist. THANK YOU!
We want to thank all of the authors and publishers who participated in the 2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs). Each year, we find the quality of the entries and the competitiveness of the division competitions increasing exponentially. We added a new level to the judging rounds in 2020—the premier Level of FINALIST per each CIBA Division. The CIBA judges wanted to add the Finalist Level of Achievement as a way to recognize and validate the entries that had outstanding merit but were not selected for the very few First Place Award positions within each genre division.
This post will recognize the First Place and Grand Prize Winners for the Laramie, Chaucer, Goethe, Hemingway, Chatelaine, Mark Twain, and Somerset Awards.
Coveted Chanticleer Blue Ribbons!
We are honored to present the
2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards
Grand Prize Winners
The 2020 CIBA Winners!
The LARAMIE Book Awards for
American, Western, Pioneer, Civil War, and First Nation Novels
The Grand Prize Winner is
TROUBLE THE WATER, A NOVEL by Rebecca Dwight Bruff
As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please email us at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com We will try our best to respond within 3 business days.
Thank you for joining us in celebrating the 2020 CIBA Winners! – The Chanticleer Team
The Goethe Book Awards recognize emerging new talent in post-1750s Historical Fiction. The Goethe Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
The Goethe Book Awards competition is named for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who was born at the dawn of the new era of enlightenment on August 28, 1749.
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring Late Period Historical Fiction. Regency, Victorian,18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, World and other wars, history of non-western cultures, set after the 1750s. These books have advanced to the Premier Level of Achievement in the 2020 CIBAs.
We have received a large number of Historical Fiction in the last years to the point that we need a new division! See Hemingway Awards for our new division!
The 2020 GOETHE Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the GOETHE Grand Prize Winner were announced by Gregory Erich Phillips on Saturday, June 5, 2021 at the Hotel Bellwether and broadcast via ZOOM webinar and Facebook Live.
NOTE: We received so many wonderful historical novels that we decided that another division was needed—the Hemingway Book Awards for 20-century Wartime Novels—to recognized these important works. If you entered the Goethe Book Awards with a wartime novel (WWI, WWII, Vietnam Conflict, etc), please check the Hemingway Book Awards post.
It is our privilege and profound honor to announce the 1st in Category winners of the 2020 GOETHE Awards, a division of the 2020 CIBAs.
This is the OFFICIAL 2020 LIST of the GOETHE BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the GOETHE Grand Prize Winner.
Congratulations to all!
Congratulations to the 2020 1st Place Winners in the GOETHE Book Awards!
Linda Ulleseit – The Aloha Spirit
Wendy Long Stanley –The Power to Deny
Ben Wyckoff Shore –Terribilita
Donna Scott – The London Monster
Michelle Cameron –Beyond the Ghetto Gates
Pamela Jonas –Beneath a Radiant Moon
Dorothea Hubble Bonneau –Once in a Blood Moon
Jule Selbo –Breaking Barriers: A Novel Based on the Life of Laura Bassi
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2020 Goethe Awards is:
Linda Ulleseit for
The Aloha Spirit
The 2021 GOETHE Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC22 on April 10, 2022. Save the date for CAC22, scheduled April 7-10, 2022, our 10 year Conference Anniversary!
Submissions for the 2021 GOETHE Book Awards are open. Enter here!
A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in July. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. We thank you for your patience and understanding.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day my dear Chanticleerians! We love all the myriad topics that this holiday brings to mind, Irish History, Mystery, Magic, Romance, and maybe a little beer!
A few fun facts about the holiday:
St Patrick’s is held on the traditional Day of Death, not St. Patrick’s Birthday
Singing happy birthday to St. Patrick is a great idea, but the actual date of his birth is unknown?
Interestingly enough, the color associated with St. Patrick used to be blue!
Why all the beer?
St. Patrick’s Day is often seen as a religious tradition, but a holiday in the middle of Lent can be a little prohibitive in terms of how it’s celebrated. So, the Church would actually lift the restriction on alcohol consumption and meat for the day, so bring on the green beer and Rueben sandwiches!
Why the clover?
The supposed history of the shamrock is that St. Patrick used the three leaves of the clover to explain the Holy Trinity when he preached.
Closer to Home
The US hosts the largest St Patrick’s Day Parade in the World in New York City, though of course that is postponed due to the pandemic. Oddly though, St. Patrick’s Day is only recognized as an official holiday in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, despite people all around the country choosing to celebrate it. However, we have declared March Irish Heritage Month since 1991.
It’s not easy being Green
Maybe skip the leprechaun outfits—no one likes to be a stereotype. Many Irish people, when they first migrated to the US during the potato famine of 1845-49, faced discrimination like most new arrivals here do to this day. They fought for both cultural and religious acceptance.
And Now!
Some of our favorite books we like to curl up with before the weather truly transitions to Spring.
Historical Fiction
To submit to one of our Historical Fiction Awards see the Chaucer Awards (pre-1750s Historical Fiction) here, the Goethe Awards (post-1750s Historical Fiction) here, and the Laramie Awards for Western Fiction here.
I’ll TAKE YOU HOME KATHLEEN by J.P. Kenna
Grand Prize Winner in the Goethe Awards
The 1800s was the age of expansion in the United States, and railroads played a major part in the efforts to move Americans and industry to the Western shores. By the 1860s, this great country, the American experiment as it was called, became engulfed in a brother versus brother bloody Civil War. As the century drew to a close in the late 1880s and early 1890s, America was still reeling from the emotional and economic damage the war had caused. J.P. Kenna uses this struggle as the backdrop for his book I’ll Take You Home Kathleen, the second in his series titled Beyond the Divide.
Kenna’s novel captures the years 1882 to 1898 with its focal point being the Irish immigrants who were seeking to escape famine, lack of land reform along with desiring religious freedom, came to America seeking a better life and more opportunity. The first wave of immigrants were seeking escape from one of the grimmest periods in Irish history–the Great Famine from 1845 to 1852. Author Kenna follows this hard-working group of immigrants who helped lead America into a post-Civil War, industrial, and economic boom that some have called the Second Industrial Revolution.
SHAME the DEVIL by Donna Scott
First Place Winner in the Chaucer Awards
Colin and Roddy Blackburne are sent into indentured servitude in England in 1643 with their father. Gavan Blackburne supported the divine right of King Charles I. Still, after the tragic death of his wife that both Colin and Roddy witnessed, he relinquishes his efforts to protect the remainder of his family.
The Blackburnes become stable hands at Appleton Hall, where the viscount’s daughter Emma quickly catches the eye of young Colin. Emma is curious about the young Scots in the stable and drags along Alston, the son of Lord Stillingfleet. The four children start a friendship that intertwines their lives forever.
FENIAN’S TRACE by Sean P. Mahoney
First Place Winner in the Goethe Awards
Rory McCabe and Conor O’Neill are hard-working 12-year-olds, whose exploits and progress are narrated by the namesake of Clancy’s Pub who’s taken a liking to them. At times, he rewards the boys’ efforts with tales of their shared Irish heritage, its heroes and its glories. The boys have very different personalities, as Clancy discerns from their reactions to his lore. Rory is outraged as he hears of Ireland’s treatment by the British, while Conor accepts the information more quietly, studiously.
The two boys will soon meet a beautiful girl, Maria, the daughter of a well-to-do neighbor secretly aligned with a revolutionary resistance movement. Both will fall in love, but of the two, Rory will be the more open about his interest, while Conor will hold back, respectful but clearly smitten.
To submit to one of our Mystery or Thriller Fiction Awards see the Mystery & Mayhem Awards here, the Clue Awards here, and the Global Thriller Awards here.
EVIL UNDER the STARS: The Agatha Christie Book Club (Book 3) by C.A. Larmer
First Place Winner in the Mystery & Mayhem Awards
Who commits a murder in a crowd of a hundred people relaxing in a park, and how did the Agatha Christie Book Club miss the entire thing from only a few feet away? In the trendy Sydney suburb of Balmain, Kat Mumford, social media interior design star, has been murdered during the inaugural Cinema Under the Stars. Her distraught husband, Eliot, is clearly the prime suspect, but at the time of Kat’s strangulation, he is nowhere near her. In fact, no one was sitting near Kat, and the crowd seems to have been so absorbed by the movie, Agatha Christie’s Evil Under Sun, that no one saw a thing out of the ordinary.
The question is not if history will catch up with you but instead, when will it attack with a vengeance. Characters with a Legacy of Lies discover they can run, but they can’t hide from past actions. When Caren Johnson sees her family and life literally explode in flames, her uncertain future falls into the hands of a mysterious Irishman. His name is Declan Malone, and he claims he’s been sent by her brother to save her from assassins determined to kill her too. How can that be when her brother’s death was reported ten years ago? Declan’s reasons for a hasty departure from Ireland appear suspect and put a target on his back too.
To submit to one of our Romance or Contemporary Fiction Awards see the Chatelaine Awards here and the Somerset Awards here.
The PARTICULAR APPEAL of GILLIAN PUGSLEY by Susan Örnbratt
First Place Winner in the Chatelaine Awards
Irish-born Gillian McAllister knew she was meant for bigger things than a quiet life among her large extended family. Leaving home at seventeen against her protective father’s wishes, Gillian is looking for adventure – and that’s exactly what she finds. She was a nanny for a maharaja, a caretaker for WWII internees, and a nurse on the Isle of Man before finally becoming a wife, mother, and grandmother in London, Canada, where she spent the majority of her eighty-nine years.
However, with only weeks to live after being stricken by cancer, she knows her time with her beloved granddaughter and namesake is truly precious. Before she goes, she wants to pass on the poems that capture her long, adventurous life to the junior Gilly in hopes the girl will use the poems to write about her adventure – her hidden love story.
BLAME it on the BET (Whiskey Sisters, Book 1) by L.E. Rico
First Place Winner in the Chatelaine Awards
Twenty-six-year-old Hennessy O’Halloran should have it all. She should be enjoying her overpriced apartment in St. Paul, Minnesota, her successful legal career, and her “friends with benefits” neighbor, but in the month since her father’s sudden death, all of those things have become unimportant.
She thought she and her sisters had some time to figure out what to do with Jack’s legacy, an Irish pub he and their deceased mother built from scratch. Still, when they discover a substantial loan agreement secreted away in Jack’s belongings, they realize they only have six weeks to come up with over $100,000, money he borrowed against the business to help finance various expenses on his daughters’ behalves. She finds herself back home in Mayhem, Minnesota, living above the pub and trying desperately to find the funds to save the business.
Choileach, Chanticleer’s Irish cousin, wishes you this:
May your heart be light and happy, may your smile be big and wide, and may your pockets always have a coin or two inside!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Sharon & Kiffer & David and the whole Chanticleer Team!
And Remember! You can join the Chanticleer Family Anytime!
Sign up for our Newsletter here! Join our online community, The Roost, here for discounts and special offers!
Join us at our (Virtual) Chanticleer Authors Conference April 21-25, 2021. Read more about our headliners and workshops for that here!
VCAC 21 will feature Bestselling Crime Author Cathy Ace, J.D. Barker – Master of Suspense, C.C. Humphreys – Historical Fiction with a twist, Jessica Morrell – Top-tiered Developmental Editor, and more!
Check out our Editorial Services here and our Manuscript Overviews here, OR, if your work is already polished to a fine shine, it’s time to submit to our Editorial Reviews here and our Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs) here!
Do you have an early historical fiction manuscript or recently released novel? Submit your work to the CIBA 2019 CHAUCER Awards by
June 30, 2020, and see how your work stacks up against others.
We know you want to – because we never tire of promoting our authors’ achievements!
As in Chaucer’s words in the Nun’s Priest Tale of the Canterbury Tales,
“For crowing there was not his equal in all the land.”
We titled the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs) division for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction the Chaucer Awards, after the English poet and author of the Canterbury Tales, because #CHAUCER.
But seriously, did you know that The Canterbury Tales is considered one of the greatest works in the English language? In fact, it was among the first non-secular books written in Middle English to be printed. So, yeah, #Chaucer
A woodcut from William Caxton’s second edition 0f the Canterbury Tales printed in 1483
Some interesting tidbits about Geoffrey Chaucer
born c. 1342/43 probably in London. He died on October 25, 1400
his father was an important London vintner
His family’s finances were derived from wine and leather
Chaucer spoke Middle English and was fluent in French, Latin, and Italian
He guided diplomatic missions across the continent of Europe for ten years where he discovered the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio whose The Decameron had a profound influence on Chaucer’s later works
He married well as his wife received an annuity from the queen consort of Edward III
His remains are interred in the Westminster Abbey
As our deadline draws near, don’t miss this opportunity to earn the distinction your historical fiction deserves! Enter today!
Welcome to the CHAUCER BOOK AWARDS HALL OF FAME
Click on the links below to read the Chanticleer Review of the award-winning work!
Regency: Traitor’s Gate by David Chacko & Alexander Kulcsar
Women’s Fiction/WWII: Wait for Me by Janet K. Shawgo
Medieval/Dark Ages:Divine Vengeanceby David Koons
Women’s Fiction/World History: Daughters of India by Kavita Jade
What are you waiting for? Before long the CHAUCER Book Award deadline will be history.
Submit your manuscript or recently released Historical Fiction (pre-1750s) to the Chanticleer International Book Awards!
Want to be a winner next year? The deadline to submit your book for the Chaucer awards is June 30, 2020. Enter here!
Grand Prize and First Place Winners for 2019 will be announced on September 5, 2020.
Any entries received on or after June 30, 2020, will be entered into the 2021 Chaucer Book Awards. The Grand Prize and First Place for 2020 CIBA winners will be held on April 17, 2021.
As our deadline draws near, don’t miss this opportunity to earn the distinction your historical fiction deserves! Enter today!
The CHAUCER Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards – the CIBAs.
The 2020 winners will be announced at the CIBA Awards Ceremony on September 5, 2020, which will take place during the 2020 Chanticleer Authors Conference. All Semi-Finalists and First Place category winners will be recognized, the first-place winners will be whisked up on stage to receive their custom ribbon and wait to see who among them will take home the Grand Prize. It’s an exciting evening of dinner, networking, and celebrations!
Colin and Roddy Blackburne are sent into indentured servitude in England in 1643 with their father. Gavan Blackburne supported the divine right of King Charles I. Still, after the tragic death of his wife that both Colin and Roddy witnessed, he relinquishes his efforts to protect the remainder of his family.
The Blackburnes become stable hands at Appleton Hall, where the viscount’s daughter Emma quickly catches the eye of young Colin. Emma is curious about the young Scots in the stable and drags along Alston, the son of Lord Stillingfleet. The four children start a friendship that intertwines their lives forever.
By 1648 the King is being tried for treason. Emma and Alston are facing pressure to find suitable matches for marriage, and both have secrets to hide. Emma and Colin have professed their love for each other, while Alston has fallen for Stephen Kitts, a man who has a dark past and devious intentions for the future. Colin is forced to flee the day before his family’s servitude ends, leaving only a letter behind. Tragedy strikes when Roddy’s jealousy causes him to betray the young lovers ending in unforeseen consequences.
Scott’s writing is magnificent. One of the first signs of her skill is how quickly the real-world melts away when reading. History buffs will enjoy the way Shame the Devil effortlessly interlaces the complex historical backdrop into the narrative, while those reading for the romance will not be overwhelmed with historical exposition. While the history of the setting is a crucial element of the story, it mainly shows up in character dialog. The way characters talk about and react to the political tensions of mid-seventeenth-century England fuels the conflicts of the novel and demonstrate how character-driven a story can be.
The English Civil War takes a back seat to the book’s real action, secrets, and lies. Naturally, in a story of forbidden romances, there is plenty of betrayals, but there is just as much steadfast love. A well-written book like Shame the Devil makes readers invested in the likable characters and the unlikable ones. All of the main characters are complex and feel real within each page. Scott manages to make the character’s flaws and motivations believable and make sense within the narrative to make each character’s story feel complete.
The intricately woven secrets and lies against the backdrop of an unprecedented dethroning of the monarchy make Shame the Devil a page-turning experience. Historical fiction and romance fans should not miss out on this book. Highly recommended.
Shame the Devil won First Place in the CIBA 2014 Chaucer Awards for Early Historical Fiction novels.
The Chaucer Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in pre-1750s Historical Fiction. The Chaucer Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Women’s Fiction:
