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.

Amy MacLennan has been published or has work forthcoming in River Styx, Hayden's Ferry Review, Cimarron Review, Linebreak, Pearl, Rattle, South Dakota Review, Folio and Wisconsin Review. One of her poems was included in So Luminous the Wildflowers, An Anthology of California Poets (Tebot Bach). Amy has appeared at the Petaluma Poetry Walk and the San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival. She is the Assistant Managing Editor for The Cortland Review.

Gol McAdam lives in the UK, dividing her time between Yorkshire and Kent. Her working life has been spent in Further and Higher Education, teaching Psychology and Women's Studies and, latterly, heading a department of Child Studies. She feels that neither this nor her academic background (a BSc in Behavioural Studies and a PhD in Gender Studies) equipped her for literary pursuits. Nevertheless, she has always enjoyed writing and, in addition to academic and educational texts, has had success with short stories and radio drama. Poetry is a recent development that came as rather a surprise, since she never expected her writing to take off in this direction. She has just completed the MA in Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has published numerous poems in literary magazines and anthologies and has received commendations in two poetry competitions. She is working on her first poetry collection.

David McKirdy was born in Scotland and raised and educated in Hong Kong. He is one of the organisers of local poetry group OUTLOUD and a director of the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival. His work has appeared in anthologies and literary journals and his collection of poetry Accidental Occidental was published in 2005. McKirdy currently repairs and rebuilds vintage cars for a living.

Leanne Murphy is song-writer, pianist, classroom music teacher, children's puppeteer, artist and emerging writer. In 2003, she recorded her debut album of original folk-rock ballads, entitled Portal. She is currently working towards her first collection of poetry. Leanne lives in Beechworth, Australia, with her poet-husband Frank Prem, and illustrated his second book, Memoir of a Dog.

Fatima Naoot is an Egyptian poet, journalist, and architect. Born in Cairo in 1964, she graduated in 1987 from the faculty of Engineering at Ein Shams University, Cairo. She has published ten books so far: five poetry collections, four translated anthologies from English into Arabic, and one book of criticism. She writes weekly columns for newspapers in Egypt and the Middle East. She won first prize of the "Arabic Poetry 2006" competition in Hong Kong, for her fifth poetry collection, A Bottle of Glue, a Chinese/English edition (Nadwah Press, 2007). She has represented Egypt at the Moutanabbi International Poetic Festival in Zurich and the International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam in 2007. Her work has been translated into several languages.

Kate North currently lives and teaches in Gloucestershire in the UK. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from Cardiff University. Her poetry is widely anthologised and can be read in Pterodactyl's Wing (Parthian). Her debut novel, Eva Shell, is published by Cinnamon Press. She edits for iota poetry magazine and writes reviews, articles and interviews for a variety of magazines and journals. Her awards include: Yorkshire Art Circus Writer's Development Programme, (2006); winner of the Arvon/Jerwood Writer's Apprenticeship (2004/5); Taliesin Trust bursary
recipient (2003); and she was also short-listed twice for Forward Poem of the Year (2001/2).

Christina Pacosz has been writing most of her life and has published six books of poetry: Notes from the Red Zone, Seal Press, 1983; Some Winded, Wild Beast, Black and Red, 1985; This Is Not a Place to Sing, West End, 1987; One River, Pudding House Publications, 2000; and Greatest Hits, 1975-2001, Pudding House Publications, 2002. Shimmy Up to This Fine Mud, Poets Warehouse, Portland, Oregon, 1976, is out of print. Pacosz has assisted Iranian poet Farideh Hassanzadeh in translating Nima Yushij. She has worked closely with Dr. Rati Saxena on various projects associated with the monthly on-line magazine www.kritya.in. Born into a working-class Polish family in Detroit, Michigan, she has lived throughout the United States. She now lives with her husband and Mr. Kitty, their former street cat, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Gregory Payne is from Australia and is a Hong Kong-based dispute-resolution lawyer. Greg loves to read history, pore over books on ancient Chinese weaponry, and to indulge his adventurous imagination through writing. He has been developing the story of the China Exploration Club, which is at the centre of Chase to the Brazen Head, over the last few years.

Pascale Petit has published four poetry collections including The Huntress and The Zoo Father, which were both shortlisted for the UK's T.S. Eliot Prize and were books of the year in The Times Literary Supplement. Her latest is The Treekeeper's Tale (2008) and forthcoming in autumn 2009 The Thorn Necklace: Forty poems after Frida Kahlo (illustrated), all from Seren. The Poetry Book Society and Arts Council named her as one of the Next Generation Poets in 2004. She has won numerous writing awards, including two from Arts Council England to complete The Treekeeper's Tale and travel to Nepal and China, and has been shortlisted for a Forward Prize. A bilingual edition of The Zoo Father is published in Mexico and her poems are translated into many languages. In 2008 she took part in the Yellow Mountain Poetry Festival in China and the British Council's New Silk Route project in Kazakhstan. She originally trained as a sculptor at the Royal College of Art, has worked as editor of Poetry London 1989-2005 and is now a trustee. She is the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Middlesex University and tutors for Oxford University, The Poetry School and Tate Modern. (www.pascalepetit.co.uk)

Emma Phillips teaches in a London primary school and tries to find enough time to write. Her work has appeared in This Poem is Sponsored By ... (Corporate Watch Anthology, 2007), the Bluechrome Poetry Competition Anthology 2006 and she was highly commended in the 2004 Oxfam and 2005 Red Pepper/Iraq Occupation Focus competitions. Emma likes travel, plastic jewellery and people who make her laugh.

Donna Pucciani has published approximately three hundred poems in the U.S. and U.K. Her collections of poetry include The Other Side Of Thunder, Jumping Off the Train, and Chasing the Saints. She has won awards from the Illinois Arts Council, Chicago Poets & Patrons, the Frieda Stein Fenster Memorial, and many state poetry societies. She currently serves as Vice President of the Poets' Club of Chicago, and is active in the Chicago poetry scene.