Dust & Divinity

Ink of Ages Fiction Prize was created to celebrate genres we love: historical and mythology-inspired fiction, and everything in between. Many if not all of these stories show such strong imagination for character and setting that they give the experience of being immersed in a different time.

Dust & Divinity features twenty-five winning and shortlisted stories from the 2025 Ink of Ages Fiction Prize, an international short story contest organized by World History Encyclopedia and sponsored by Oxford University Press.

Mesopotamian tablets, ancient Egyptian murder, Norse tales of magic, and the discovery of a lost shoe all serve as inspiration for just a few of these stories. Our writers take us from the valleys of South Wales to Pakistan's Lake Saif-ul-Malook, from Polish salt mines to the foothills of Chinese mountains. Murder, betrayal, death, and disaster meet hope, resilience, and a sprinkle of humor. In the face of despair, at least there's family (when they're not conspiring against you), music, art, dogs, and Danish pastries.

What endures when everything else has turned to dust?