"Lulled calm by the cool of the moon dust settles into the cracks of your walls cakes thick the corners of your eyes while you sleep, sifts keen into the hollows of your lungs." Read "Plow and Prairie Dust", a new #poem about Dust Bowls by @mynachang.bsky.social sites.google.com/view/sundial...

"... a beautiful 4-legged creature whose powerful haunches & long tapering legs were formed for speed. Larger than an elk, it pawed the ground with hooves like and yet not like a deer’s." Read "The God Dog", a new #histfic #shortstory by Robert Temple. sites.google.com/view/sundial...

"He slips his hand around my waist and pulls me close. 'I learned a lot over there.' His voice is a warm caress on my ear. 'How life’s awful short.'" Read "Life's Awful Short", a new #flash by @chrisdotydunn.com with original art by @seanbwparker5000.bsky.social sites.google.com/view/sundial...

"I hadn’t heard from the Boers in a while, but the Lords at the Kimberley Club weren’t worried. They said Kimberley was surrounded." Read "Burning Crowns", a new #shortstory set in #southafrica by @mlstrijdom.bsky.social. With original #art by Scott Tierney. sites.google.com/view/sundial...

We are open for #submissions! Please read our Submissions Guidelines, then send us your best #histfic! sites.google.com/view/sundial...

This Christmas, read "The Visit", a short story by Alexandra Magearu set in Romania, 1989. "Visitors need to be welcomed respectfully to alleviate the heaviness of winter, the soul-crushing cold, & the prospect of a holiday stripped of the most basic delights." sites.google.com/view/sundial...

Sundial has great things in the works! We have several new illustrators hard at work illustrating wonderful new #histfic stories. These stories and original illustrations will be posted in early 2026. We also plan to open for #submissions soon. Stay tuned!

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

"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...

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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

“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...

"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...

"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...

Call for submissions! Please read our guidelines, and then send us your best #histfic! 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...

"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...

“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...

"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...

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

"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...

Subs are open! Send us your best #histfic. Please read our submission guidelines. sites.google.com/view/sundial...

"The first woman who tried to become my Mama had warm eyes and smelled like cinnamon. But when she asked my name, I burped in her face." Read "A Child of Prestige", a new #histfic #shortstory by Shanteé Felix. Original art by Sandra Eckert. sites.google.com/view/sundial...

On Independence Day, enjoy the first short story Sundial ever published: "The Islet" by R. Louis Scott, with original art by Yaleeza Patchett. It includes a cameo by my favorite traitor with a breakfast named after him. #histfic #shortstory #revolutionarywar sites.google.com/view/sundial...

"Arrive anywhere from Norway or take an icebreaker. Or fly. Look for a circle that has no entry or exit, and lives inside and outside." Read "Andrew Goldsworthy's Touching North, 1989" by Merridawn Duckler, a new #histfic #poem about massive art at the North Pole. sites.google.com/view/sundial...

Read "Autocrat at the Lunch Table", a new #histfic #poem by Gerard Sarnat based on his encounters with Linus Pauling. sites.google.com/view/sundial...

Have you ever looked through our collections? I've gathered stories with similar themes (Maternity, LGBTQ, Visual Arts), locales (the U.K., the Far East, Latin America), or time periods (the Renaissance, WW2) into collections. Browse and enjoy! sites.google.com/view/sundial...

"Sometimes I think I am already in the ground. I truly have nowhere to turn. The only thing to do is record this so when I am dead perhaps someone will pity me." Read "The Lady", a new #histfic #shortstory by Susan Moisan, with original #art by Yaleeza Patchett. sites.google.com/view/sundial...

"Our labour lines the merchant’s purse, the finery of France upon his back our wool sacks are his plunder and his riches." Read "The Sergemaker's Rebellion, Tiverton", a new #histfic #poem by Emma Phillips sites.google.com/view/sundial...

"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 kindest master ever." Read "Escape, Frederick!", a new #histfic #poem by David Salner, from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass sites.google.com/view/sundial...

Submissions are open! Send us your best historical fiction. sites.google.com/view/sundial...

“'It wasn’t until police saw the pictures that they realized who they’d been up against: Bonnie & Clyde.' 'She can’t be older than you are. 2 policemen dead; she’s bound to come to a bad end.'” Read "Skyline Drive", a new #histfic #novelette by Rita Welty Bourke sites.google.com/view/sundial...

“Edna, I’ve got a surprise for you,” he announced as he walked through the door. “What’s that, Paul?” “A new washing machine. A Bendix Dialamatic.” “You’re joking. We can’t afford that.” Read "Blue Stars", a new #histfic #novelette by Jennifer Porter sites.google.com/view/sundial...

“The ashtray was beautifully colored with a scene of the Schönbrunn Palace in turquoise and pink. What he would want with this beautiful thing on his last night on earth was another matter." Read "The Ashtray", a new #histfic #shortstory by Richard Lawrence Bennett sites.google.com/view/sundial...

"This token, round like a mouth or a baby’s suckle is mine to exchange for ale." Read "Trade Token, Red Lion, Tiverton, 1657", a new #histfic #poem by Emma Phillips, writer-in-residence at Tiverton Museum sites.google.com/view/sundial...

"The ground rises to meet me like my mother’s hand when vexed. I bite my lip with the force. I stand up. My pulse thumps in my ears." Read "Woman in a Field, Somewhere in France, 1942" by @emmamvenables.bsky.social sites.google.com/view/sundial...

"Ayla was adept at measuring seeds & spices into the mortar & pummeling them with the pestle. But there was one plant which her father insisted he alone must gauge and grind." Read Ayla the Apothecary, a new #shortstory by Chris Cottom. #art by Yaleeza Patchett sites.google.com/view/sundial...

Thanks for submitting your stories! Subs are temporarily closed while we work through our submissions. Stay tuned for more new short #histfic!

"Gerald had a dollar to buy 2 packs of Luckies for his father. They’d pulled in at Patsy’s Diner. It looked like a coach car from the railroad, all glass and polished metal, just off the south side of the Lincoln Highway." Read "Patsy's Diner" by David Salner. sites.google.com/view/sundial...

The short story "The Flimsy Gallows" by C.W Towarnicki, first published in Sundial in 2022, was an excerpt of a novel which has now been published by Htf Publishing. Notes from a Deserter is availble for pre-order now: www.amazon.com/Notes-Desert...