Exactly four years ago, a poem I wrote titled An Uncommon Bounty helped kick off Sundial Magazine, a brand new online magazine of historical fiction. Today, that same poem has just been reprinted in Across the Moors and Tides, the second of Sundial’s themed anthologies! This collection focuses on the United Kingdom, and its reach elsewhere throughout history. My own contribution’s an example of that long reach, as my poem’s about Benjamin Hornigold’s silly, but historically true, piratical antics in 1717, not far from the coast of Honduras. The pirate Republic of Nassau was a notorious thorn in the British Empire’s side, and would fall shortly after the poem’s events.

On a more personal note, having this poem reprinted now also means a lot to my own history, as this will be the first time I’m having something published under the name Ethan Zoey Hedman! It took me some time to settle on a new name which resonated with me, but a while after coming out publicly as a transgender woman back in May, I wanted my whole name to better reflect my identity. I love the name Zoey; I’ve been using it for a while now with friends, family, and of course on my website and social media, so I’m delighted it’s finally being used in publication (and grateful to Sundial’s wonderful editor, Ashley N.E. Murphy, for being so cool about the name change on a poem initially published years ago).

If an anthology of historical fiction covering the wide swaths of impact the UK has had on world history sounds like your cup of tea, you can snag a copy for yourself right now in paperback or Kindle on Amazon!