Haven Books is an English-language press that aims to put a wide range of interesting books into readers' hands. Our titles focus primarily on Hong Kong and Asian themes.

"Cynthia Schwartzberg Edlow’s poetry has appeared in the American Poetry Review, ACM (Another Chicago Magazine), Chelsea, Full Circle Journal, Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, Square Lake and The Emily Dickinson Awards Anthology (Universities West Press). She was a past prize-winner to the National Poetry Competition (Judges: Robert Creeley, Diane Wakoski and Charles Wright) and a finalist in Inkwell magazine’s 2002 Poetry Competition (Judge: Elizabeth Alexander). She has recent poetry in Arizona Attorney Magazine, Barrow Street, The Chiron Review, Cimarron Review, The Litchfield Review, Willow Review, from whom she was awarded the 2004 Willow Review Prize for Poetry, and Gulf Coast, from whom she was chosen as a finalist in the 2005 Gulf Coast Poetry Contest. She has poetry appearing in American Literary Review, Diner, The Tusculum Review, Smartish Pace, from whom she was awarded third prize in the 2006 Beullah Rose Poetry Prize Competition and the nature anthology In The Eye from Thunder Rain Publishers, the proceeds of which will go to Habitat for Humanity to aid in the relief efforts for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. She is the Featured Poet for the online poetry journal, Galatea Resurrects (A Poetry Engagement)."

Menna Elfyn was born in 1951 near Swansea, Wales, and is known first and foremost as a poet. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of Academi Gymreig, and has been Writing Director of the MA Creative Writing Programme at Trinity College, Carmarthen, since 1998. She writes in Welsh and her English Language translators include Tony Conran and Gillian Clarke. Her first bi-lingual book of poetry, Eucalyptus: Detholiad O Gerddi/Selected Poems 1978-1994, was published in 1995 and was followed by Cell Angel (1996) and Cusan Dyn Dall/Blind Man’s Kiss (2001). She has also written two books for children, one of which, Rana Rebel (2002), is about a child soldier. Her two books of children’s poetry are Ffwl Yn Y Dwr: Casgliad O Gerddi I Bobl Ifanc (1999) and Caneri Pinc ar Dywod Euraid (2003). Other writing includes stage plays, adaptations and scripts for television, radio plays, non-fiction text books for under-achievers, a workpack commissioned by Save The Children Fund (1997) and a number of libretti. She co-wrote The Garden of Light for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and in 1999 was commissioned to write Hymn to a Welshman, a tribute to R. S. Thomas. She also wrote lyrics to songs for the Millennium Centre opening Royal Gala concert. She edited with John Rowlands The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry: 20th-Century Welsh-language Poetry in Translation (2003) and her latest book is again in Welsh—Perffaith Nam (2005). Perfect Blemish: New and Selected Poems 1995-2007. In 2002, Menna Elfyn was appointed Poet Laureate for the Children of Wales.

Anna Evans is a British citizen but permanent resident of New Jersey, where she is raising two daughters. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in journals such as The Harvard Review, The Atlanta Review, Rattle and Measure. She has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize and was a finalist for both the 2005 and 2007 Howard Nemerov sonnet award, and for the 2007 Willis Barnstone Translation Award. She is Associate Editor of the Raintown Review and Editor of the formal poetry e-zine The Barefoot Muse. She gained her MFA from Bennington College and her first chapbook Swimming was published in March 2006 by Maverick Duck Press.

"Fadia Fahed started her journalistic career with a five-year stint at the leading Lebanese daily, An-Nahar. She then joined Al-Hayat Group to launch Laha, which became the number one Pan-Arab glossy female magazine, and where she now occupies the position of Deputy Editor -in-Chief. Ms. Fahed is a feminist activist who has written extensively about women’s rights and has participated in a number of international women’s conferences. She is also a recognised poet whose work addresses intellectual, emotional, and human issues. Her poems have been translated into a number of languages, including English, French, Italian and Farsi."

Kate Marshall Flaherty lives in Toronto with her husband and three children. She leads poetry workshops, guides meditation and mindfulness retreats, and is a founding member of the Children’s Peace Theatre, Toronto. She celebrated the launch of her first book, entitled Tilted Equilibrium, in 2006, and launched her first CD, “Deepening Stillness”, in June. She has read from this and her new manuscript at Toronto’s Art Bar, Toronto WordStage, and at the LCP’s AGM in Ottawa this year. She has won several awards for her poetry, is published in a number of magazines and anthologies, and made the shortlist for the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, Nimrod Journal 2006, and others. Kate won the Toronto Art Bar’s Poetry Slam 2005, and the Toronto Art Bar’s Poetry Sweatshop Contest in 2004. She has been filmed and interviewed for Bravo’s Heart of the Poet series twice in 2005 and 2006. She has participated in The Banff Centre’s Writing With Style Program twice, and leads a Poetry Writing Workshop at University of Toronto’s Continuing Education SMC Campus. Poetry is her first love, and continues to be her life-line.

"Maureen Tolman Flannery has grounded her poetics in the various landscapes of her life: Wyoming, where she grew up the daughter of a
rancher, Mexico, where she has become infatuated with the rich complexity of Mexican culture and geography, and Chicago, where she has settled to raise her family of three sons and a daughter. These offspring, along with her husband of thirty-five years, provide much grist for her poetical mill. She received a Literary Award from the Illinois Arts Council and has been twice nominated for a Pushchart Prize. She is a two-time grand prize winner of Sparrowgrass’ Award of Poetic Excellence, and has won first place in the WyoPoets contest, the Telluride magazine poetry contest, and the New River Poets contest. Her three other volumes of poetry are: Ancestors in the Landscape: Poems of a Rancher’s Daughter (John Gordon Burke, 2004), Secret of the Rising Up: Poems of MexicO (John Gordon Burke, 2004), Remembered into Life (New Song Press, 2001) She edited the critically acclaimed Knowing Stones: Poems of Exotic Places,an anthology of travel poetry (John Gordon Burke, 2003). Her chapbook, Conversations for the Road, is available online at tmpoetry.com. Her poems have appeared in one hundred plus reviews, magazines, and journals, and she has placed poems in forty anthologies. Her work has been selected for “Dial-A-Poem, Chicago,” and has been heard on WBEZ’s “Metropolis.” She is also secretary/treasurer of Poets’ Club of Chicago. Flannery received her BA and MA degrees in English Literature from Creighton University, and has taught English as a Foreign Language for thirty years."

"Rose Flint is a writer, artist and art therapist. She works as a Poet in Healthcare, running groups and being with individuals in a wide variety of healthcare settings. She has had four collections published: Blue Horse of Morning (Seren), Firesigns (Poetry Salzburg), Nekyia (Stride) and Mother of Pearl (PS Avalon). Rose Flint has won three international poetry awards—including the Petra Kenny 2007 and the Cardiff International 2008."

"Evelyn Flores is a Native Chamoru writer from the Pacific island of Guam. As a researcher, she has come to realize that in the transition from oral to written culture, the perspectives of her people have been overwhelmed by the print culture of the West. Having dedicated her life so far to scholarship, she has turned to creative writing in an attempt to capture these indigenous perspectives and publish them in accessible forms. Evelyn is an associate professor of literature at the University of Guam. With her specialties in 19th-century American Literature, Pacific Island Literature, and Postcolonial Theory as backdrop, she passionately guides students toward excavating, writing, and publishing the foundational stories of their identity. She has published three children’s books and a genealogy of a Chamoru family central to the introduction of Protestantism to Guam. She is currently working on another book about World War II. Evelyn has two daughters, one husband; and currently no dogs. She loves reading, writing, traveling, and hiking."

"Nashua Gallagher is a Sri-Lankan born poet and freelance journalist. Having involved herself in the Hong Kong art and literary scene from a young age, she co-founded weekly open-mic sessions ‘Poetry for Sad Drinkers’ at Joyce Is Not Here artists’ bar and café, Hong Kong. In 2008, she participated in the Man Hong Kong Literary Festival. She currently lives in Hong Kong with her husband Angus and son, Kian. This is her first contribution to a poetry anthology."

Adele C. Geraghty was born in Brooklyn, New York, and now resides in Sheffield, UK. She is the recipient of the US National Women’s History Award for Excellence in Women’s Related Poetry and Essay and the author of Skywriting In The Minor Key: Women, Words, Wings. She and her husband, Dr. Phil Sidebottom of The University of Sheffield, are creators of ‘Between These Shores’, a time-period enactment, merging poetry and archaeology. A presentational poet and writer of short stories, whose career includes journalism and comedy/satire, her work has been performed live and on the radio in both the US and the UK.

Suzanne Gervay is an award winning writer with works published in numerous Australian literary journals including Quadrant, Southerly and Westerly. Her recent story “Days of Thailand” appears in the Picador Indian-Australian anthology Blood Will Have Blood alongside the works of David Malouf, Sir Salman Rushdie and Thomas Keneally. Her young-adult novels include Butterflies, recognised as Outstanding Youth Literature on Disability; The Cave, awarded the Society of Women Writers Biennial Book Award for young adult literature; I Am Jack, a rite-of-passage book on school bullying. Suzanne’s books are endorsed by numerous organizations, including the Children’s Hospital Sydney, Life Education Australia, The National Coalition against Bullying. Her most recent novel is a unique combination of text and music. That’s Why I Wrote This Song is a collaboration with her song writer-singer daughter Tory, who composed the score for the book. Suzanne is co-head of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators Australia and New Zealand, heads Sydney Children’s Writers & Illustrators Network at The Hughenden, is on the board of the NSW Writers Centre and has been awarded the University of Technology Sydney Outstanding Professional Achievement Award and The Lady Cutler Award for Distinguished Services to Children’s Literature. (www.sgervay.com)

Sarah Getty is an award-winning poet, fiction writer, and teacher of creative writing. Her second book of poems, Bring Me Her Heart, was published in 2006 by Higganum Hill Books and nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. Her first collection, The Land of Milk and Honey (University of South Carolina Press, James Dickey Contemporary Poetry Series), won a Cambridge Poetry Award in 2002. Her poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Calyx, The Eleventh Muse, and other leading magazines, as well as in the anthology, Birds in the Hand (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004). Sarah has published fiction in The Iowa Review and in the anthology Still Going Strong (Haworth Press, 2005), and has recently completed a novel, Spend All You Have, about growing up in the Midwest in the Fifties.

Michael Gibb is a long-term resident in Hong Kong. He is currently working for a South Korean newspaper in Seoul. He grew up in the UK and has been working in Asia since 1992. He has published several short stories through the Hong Kong Writers' Circle. His email is mjcgibb@yahoo.com.

Jean Gill was the first woman to be a Secondary Headteacher in the Welsh county of Carmarthenshire. She is a specialist in English and Literacy who worked in South Wales for over twenty years with 4-19 year olds, and as adviser to their teachers. As a consultant, she trained teachers throughout the UK and mainland Europe. She is a member of the Welsh Academi and her publications include two books of poetry, two novels, non-fiction on goat cheese and a translated work on training dogs. She has lived in the South of France since 2003 and her articles on French life, cheese and plumbing have appeared in France magazine. Jean Gill is married and mother or stepmother to five children and, so far, three grandchildren. Her own childhood was nomadic, following her Scottish soldier father from one posting to another, including three years in Hong Kong. Her current nationality is Welsh Provençal of Scottish provenance. (www.jeangill.com; www.istockphoto/jeangill)

Vera Goodwin (previously Tang) was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. With a degree in Urban Development from the University of Western Ontario and the Canadian equivalent to the Chartered Surveyor designation, she moved to Hong Kong in 1994.

Since then, she has lived in Hong Kong, Jakarta, Los Angeles, New York and returned to Hong Kong again six years ago. She has worked in real estate, specialising in hotel and resort consulting, in real estate development, and owned her own business importing furniture and antiques from Asia, with a showroom in Los Angeles. Today, she is the mother of two, life partner to her husband, and new author.

Known to be very "resourceful" and to know "a little bit about everything" she has diverse interests that range from mountain bike riding and adventure racing to hosting great parties and creative cooking.

Her first book, Everything Hong Kong, has utilised many untapped aspects of her life, experiences and capabilities. It has been one of the most interesting, challenging and personally rewarding projects.

Vera welcomes your comments at VERA.GOODWIN@EVERYTHINGGUIDES.COM

Margaret Grace writes poetry and exhibits as a found object sculptor. Born in New Zealand but now an Aussie she has lived on the edge of the Pacific Ocean for umpteen years. She has been published in Yellow Moon, Eucalypt, Sea Heritage, Modern English Tanka, and Ash Moon Anthology. Her love of sailing, a main pursuit for thirty years, skiing and travelling, is reflected in much of her work.

Lawrence Gray is the chairman of the Hong Kong Writers' Circle and a screenwriter with credits in British and Singaporean TV drama. His screenplay “Fat Englishmen” is in production in Hollywood and his production company, Idol Films Ltd, is developing numerous TV and Film projects for local and international markets.

Peter Gregoire came out to live and work in Hong Kong in May 2003, making the same journey his father, Anthony Gregoire, did in 1967. Painting statues red and blue is dedicated to Anthony’s memory. pgregoire123@yahoo.com.

"Ina Grigorova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1974 with a soft spot for the inner workings of language. By the time she got a degree in Literature and Linguistics at Sofia University, she had published two books of poetry, translated a hundred movies and hosted a talk-back TV show. For four years she was the resident gonzo woman of Egoist, the new Bulgarian writing/style magazine, notorious for its aggressive opinions and bold style (a sliding scale mixture of literary criticism and urban epiphany), which became a badge of context for the highly educated but jaded and futureless Generation Y. Grigorova is currently working on a long piece of fiction with discrete plotlines that take place in the mythological past, the present, and a quantum-laws governed possible future. Her poem is adapted from the internal monologue of the present time protagonist on a bad hair day."

Rasma Haidri’s poems and essays have been published in many journals such as Prairie Schooner, Nimrod, Kalliope, Fine Madness and Fourth Genre. Her work has been included in anthologies from Puddinghouse, Grayson, Seal Press, Chicago Review Press, Bayeux Arts and others. Her most recent essays appear in Poem, Revised (Marion Street Press, 2008) and Crossing Cultures (Wadsworth, 2008). Rasma has received several awards, including the 2005 Southern Women Writers Association emerging writer award in creative non-fiction. She teaches British and American studies, global English, and creative writing near her home in Northern Norway. (www.rasma.org)

Tanya Hart is a multimedia, visual and performing artist, and a writer. She is also an energetic educator specialising in cross-curriculum projects and integrating literature and performance into the Hong Kong classroom. Tanya’s writing has been published in the Australian Art Review as well as various anthologies. Her installations, video art and photography have been exhibited in Sydney, Canberra, Hong Kong and Beijing. In 2002, she participated in the Beijing Red Gate Gallery’s Artist in Residence Program, on an Australia Council Grant. In 2008 her work was part of the exhibition ‘From Mao to Now: Australian artists reflect on contemporary China’. One of the works, Shamshuipokaifong.org, is a collaborative website in support of local Hong Kong community activists. Her creative projects and writing express passion for intimacy, community and language.

Penny Harter is published widely in journals and anthologies, and her literary autobiography appears as an extended essay in Contemporary Authors. Her poems have recently appeared in Contemporary American Voices, Lips, Qarrtsiluni, Tiferet, Sea Stories, U.S. 1 Worksheets, The Valparaiso Review, and Umbrella. Recent books include The Night Marsh (2008), Along River Road, Lizard Light: Poems From the Earth, and Buried in the Sky, and her illustrated alphabestiary for children, The Beastie Book, will be published early in 2009 by Shenanigan Books. She has won three poetry fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, as well as awards from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Mary Carolyn Davies Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the first William O. Douglas Nature Writing Award for her work in the anthology American Nature Writing 2002. She lives in Mays Landing, New Jersey, and works as a visiting poet in the schools through programs sponsored by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and various other agencies. (www.2hweb.net/penhart)

Elisabeth Harvor’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Hudson Review, The New Quarterly, PRISM international, Our Generation Against Nuclear War, and in many other periodicals and anthologies. Her first poetry book, Fortress of Chairs, won the Lampert Award for best first book of poetry written by a Canadian writer in 1992, and Excessive Joy Injures the Heart, her first novel, was named one of the ten best books of the year by the Toronto Star in 2000. Her most recent book of stories, Let Me Be The One, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, and her most recent poetry book, The Long Cold Green Evenings of Spring, was a finalist for the Lowther Award. (www.elisabeth-harvor.com)

Joan Hewitt’s first collection Missing the Eclipse was published by Cinnamon Press in May 2008. Two of her poems feature in The Body and the Book: Writings on Poetry and Sexuality (Rodolpi Press: Amsterdam and New York); and four poems are published in Envoi magazine’s gala edition, Issue 150 in June 2008. She has a poem in 100 Island Poems of Great Britain and Ireland, published by Iron Press; and three poems in Magnetic North: New Work from North-East Writers, published by New Writing North. Her poem “White” was Poem of the Month on publisher Diamond Twig’s website in June 2007. Her work has appeared in anthologies and magazines, and she has placed in five competitions, three of which were international: including the Ledbury, Sussex and Kent Open, and Mslexia. In 2003, she received the Northern Promise Poetry Award from New Writing North; and a Distinction in Writing Poetry from Newcastle University. She is a member of the invited Northern Poetry Advanced Workshop, Chair Sean O’ Brien, poet, dramatist, novelist and critic. Regular readings have included Theatre Royal, Newcastle, with the Royal Shakespeare Company and regional poets.

Omar Hikal is an entrepreneur and photography enthusiast. He graduated with a B.S.c in Business Administration from Boston University and worked extensively in the United States, and later the UAE and Egypt. He is co-founder and CEO of Archimedia ME, one of the region's most sophisticated Residential Technologies companies. He visited Siwa in October 2009, fell in love with the oasis town, and shot some of the photos that led to the idea of a book that would introduce Siwa to the world, and provide much needed funds to Siwan charities. He lives in Cairo, Egypt with his wife Marine. They have four children.

Justin Hill has been likened to a George Orwell, a boxer, and Leo Tolstoy.  He attended the same school as Guy Fawkes and his internationally acclaimed first novel, The Drink and Dream Teahouse (chosen by the Washington Post as one of the Top Novels of 2001) won the 2003 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, a 2002 Betty Trask Award, and was banned by the government in China.  His second novel, Passing Under Heaven, won the 2005 Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Encore Award.  Ciao Asmara, a factual account of his time in Eritrea, was shortlisted for the 2003 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.  Inexplicably, in the winter of 1994, he was once mistaken for a Chinese Mainlander

Louise Ho is one of Hong Kong’s most recognized contemporary poets writing in English. Born and brought up mostly in Hong Kong, she has lived in Mauritius, England, America and Australia. She was an associate professor of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she taught creative writing, Shakespeare and English poetry. She has published two collections of poetry, and her poems have appeared in numerous international literary journals. Now retired from teaching, she lives and writes in Australia and Hong Kong.

Tammy Ho Lai-ming, aka Sighming, is a Hong Kong-born writer who has had creative works published on five continents. She is the editor of Hong Kong U Writing: An Anthology (2006) and a co-editor of Love & Lust (2008). Ho is also a co-founder of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, the first Hong Kong-based online literary quarterly dedicated to publishing quality literature from and about Asia. (www.sighming.com)

Viki Holmes is a widely anthologized and prize-winning British poet and performer who began her writing career in Cardiff. She has been living and writing in Hong Kong since 2005. Her poetry has appeared in literary magazines and anthologies in Wales, England, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Macao and Singapore, and has been translated into Arabic and Chinese. She was twice a finalist for the John Tripp Award for spoken Poetry (Wales), and was a runner-up in Hong Kong’s inaugural Poetry Slam. Her first collection, miss moon’s class was published in 2008.

Nicole Homer will always be finding her voice. Since she started slamming, she has competed in the 2007 Individual World Poetry Slam where she placed 9th, the 2007 National Poetry Slam where her team placed 6th, and the Women of the World Poetry Slam where she placed 6th. Her work can be heard on the Indiefeed.com podcast. She is winner of the 2006 Emerging Writers Audience Favorite award at Wordfest 2006. She received her B.A. in English Literature. She is preparing to begin work on her M.A.