Alma Books is proud to be the publisher of such diverse authors as Tibor Fischer, Tom McCarthy, Robert M. Pirsig, Carmen Posadas, Yasutaka Tsutsui and William T. Vollmann.

Most of our authors are prize-winning and internationally acclaimed writers, but we also invest in new talent and publish a number of debut novelists each year, as well as quality fiction in translation and a few non-fiction titles.

Tibor Fischer was born in Stockport of Hungarian parents. He was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his first novel, Under the Frog, which also won a Betty Trask Award...

Complete Author List

Rosie Alison

Born in 1964, Rosie Alison read English at Keble College, Oxford. She spent over ten years working in television, as a producer-director of arts documentaries (her director credits include The South Bank Show, Omnibus and Grand Designs). Currently Head of Development at Heyday Films in the UK – the production company of the Harry Potter film series – she has recently co-produced two feature films (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, just released, and the forthcoming film Is There Anybody There?).

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Matthew d'Ancona

Matthew d'Ancona is the Editor of the Spectator. He contributes regularly to several other publications and makes frequent radio and television appearances.

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Sean Ashton

Sean Ashton has a postgraduate degree in sculpture from the Royal College of Art, and a Ph.D. in art from Goldsmiths College. He divides his time between writing and lecturing. Sunsets and Dogshits is his first book.

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Michel Benoît

Religious scholar and novelist Michel Benoît was born in Madagascar in 1940 (then a French colony). In 1962, having studied Biochemistry under Nobel Prize winner Jacques Monod and obtained a PhD in Pharmacology, he entered the Benedectine order as an unordained monk, remaining there for twenty-two years. Because of his ideological non-conformity, he eventually quit the Catholic Church and decided to devote himself to research and writing.

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Steven Berkoff

Considered one of the foremost playwrights and theatre directors of his generation, Steven Berkoff has also appeared in films such as Octopussy and A Clockwork Orange, and is the author of numerous books, ranging from short-story collections to travelogues, plays and poetry volumes.

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Dmitry Bykov

Dmitry Bykov is the author of five novels, a biography of Pasternak, winner of the 2007 "Big Book" Prize and the National Bestseller Prize, two collections of short-stories, two volumes of essays and eight collection of poetry. He writes for various literary publications, hosts a weekly radio show and appears regularly on Russian television

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John Calder

Since 1949, John Calder has published eighteen Nobel Prize winners and around fifteen hundred books. He has put into print many of the major French and European writers, almost single-handedly introducing modern literature into the English language. His commitment to literary excellence has influenced two generations of authors, readers, booksellers and publishers. He is the author of several plays, a memoir and various non-fiction titles. Solo is his second book of poetry.

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Horacio Castellanos Moya

Horacio Castellanos Moya was born in 1957 in Honduras, but grew up in El Salvador. He became famous in 1997 with the publication of his novel El Asco (Nausea), because of which he was forced into exile. Before that he had already lived in Canada, Costa Rica, Spain and Mexico, where he worked as a journalist and writer. After spending two years in Frankfurt, he is now living in exile as part of the City of Asylum project in Pittsburgh, USA.

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Mike Croft

Mike Croft is the thriller pen name of novelist Mike Stocks, whose poignant Indian comedy White Man Falling won the 2006 Goss First Novel Award. Also a poet, Mike's first collection Folly is published by Herla, while Sonnets, his translations of Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli's Romanesco poems, is published by Oneworld Classics. He is the founder of the poetry magazine Anon, and lives in Edinburgh.

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Lord Gawain Douglas

Lord Gawain Douglas was born in 1948, the younger son of Francis, the 11th Marquess of Queensberry. Following his father's death in the 1950s he went with his mother Mimi to live an unusual and solitary childhood in Portmeirion, North Wales. Formal education (which Gawain studiously ignored) always took second place to that provided by the mountains, rivers and forests – the mystic Welsh country inspired his early poetic imaginings.

In 1971 Gawain married Nicolette, a fellow student at the Royal Academy of Music, where they both studied piano, and they have brought up a large family of six children together. They now live in Deal in Kent, close to the sea.

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Tibor Fischer

Tibor Fischer was born in Stockport of Hungarian parents. Brought up in South London, he was educated at Cambridge and worked as a journalist. He was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his first novel, Under the Frog, which also won a Betty Trask Award, and he was nominated as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Subsequent works include The Thought Gang, The Collector Collector, Don't Read this Book if You're Stupid and Voyage to the End of the Room.

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Alessandro Gallenzi

Alessandro Gallenzi is the founder of Hesperus Press, Alma Books and Oneworld Classics, and the successor of John Calder at the helm of Calder Publications. As well as being a literary publisher with almost ten years of experience, he is a translator, a poet, a playwright and a novelist. His collection of poetry Modern Bestiary - Ars Poetastrica was published in 2005 to critical acclaim. He lives in Richmond with his wife and two children.

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Jane Hawking

Dr Jane Hawking, who was Stephen Hawking's wife for over twenty years, is a writer and lecturer. Her book At Home in France was published in 1994, followed by Music to Move the Stars in 1999. She lives and works in Cambridge.

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Michael Holden

Michael Holden was born in 1970 and lives in London, where he works as a broadcaster, writer and journalist. All Ears is his first book.

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Paola Kaufmann

Paola Kaufmann (1969-2006) was born in Rio Negro, Argentina. In recent years, she combined fiction-writing with a successful career as a biologist and scientific researcher. In 2000 she won the Fondo Nacional de las Artes Prize with her short-story collection, The Devil’s Golf Course, and in 2003 she received the Casa de las Américas Prize for The Sister. Her latest novel, The Lake, won the Planeta Prize for fiction. Paola Kauffman died suddenly, after a short illness, in September 2006.

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Michael Kimball

Michael Kimball lives and works in the USA. His first two novels, The Way the Family Got Away and How Much of Us There Was, have been published to great critical acclaim both in the UK and in the US, and have since been translated into many languages

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David Lalé

David Lalé studied at Edinburgh University and is currently on the documentary direction course at the National Film and Television School. Aged 28, he lives in Oxford. Last Stop Salina Cruz is his first book.

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Simon May

Dr Simon May is Fellow in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is author of Nietzsche's Ethics and his War on 'Morality' and other philosophical works, as well as one of the few contemporary aphorists to be included in Geary’s Guide to the World’s Great Aphorists (Bloomsbury, 2007). Atomic Sushi, an entertaining travel account of Japan written while he was visiting Professor of Philosophy at Tokyo University, is also published by Alma Books (2006).

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Anthony McCarten

Anthony McCarten’s debut novel, Spinners, won international acclaim, and was followed by The English Harem and the award winning Death of a Superhero, all three books being translated into many languages. McCarten has also written twelve stage plays, including the worldwide success Ladies’ Night, which won France’s Molière Prize, the Meilleure Pièce Comique, in 2001. Also a film-maker, he has thrice adapted his own plays or novels into feature films which he directed himself.

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Tom McCarthy

Tom McCarthy was born in 1969 and lives in London. He is known for the reports, manifestos and media interventions he has made as General Secretary of the International Necronautical Society (INS), a semi-fictitious avant-garde network. His critically acclaimed debut novel, Remainder, was a worlwide success and has been translated into many languages. His non-fiction book Tintin and the Secret of Literature is published by Granta.

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Andrea McNicoll

Andrea McNicoll is a fluent Thai speaker who lived and worked in Thailand for twelve years. A graduate of Glasgow University's prestigious Creative Writing MPhil programme, she works in Glasgow in the field of mental health. Moonshine in the Morning is her first book.

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Robert Menasse

Translated in more than twenty countries, Robert Menasse is one of the leading voices in Austrian literature, and the recipient of numerous literary awards.

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Richard C. Morais

Born in Lisbon and raised in Switzerland, Morais has lived most of his life overseas. He started his writing career in New York in 1984, moved to London for Forbes in '84 where he lived for 17 years, eventually becoming European Bureau Chief. His first book, an unauthorized biography of Pierre Cardin, was published to critical acclaim by Bantam Press in 1991. Morais's fiction was a semi-finalist in the 2004 William Faulkner Award. His short story, 'Confessions of an Aerophobe', was short-listed for Britain’s Ian St James Award and was published in the literary magazine, Acclaim. The Hundred-foot Journey is his first novel. He is a Senior Editor at Forbes.

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Maureen Myant

Maureen Myant is an educational psychologist based in Glasgow. In 2004 she was awarded a New Writers’ Bursary by the Scottish Arts Council and she has completed an MLit in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow.

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J.G. Nichols

J.G. Nichols was born in Liverpool and lives on the Wirral. His previous volume of poetry is The Flighty Horse. He has translated many of the greatest classics of Italian literature, including Dante's Inferno, Boccaccio's Decameron and Leopardi's Canti, and has been awarded the Florio Prize and the Monselice Prize for translation. His new collection of poetry, Now and Then, will be published by Herla in 2009.

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Roberto Olla

Roberto Olla is an award-winning writer and TV journalist. He has produced a number of internationally acclaimed history documentaries, including The Last Godfathers and Emigrants. His other books include More Cherries, Please, Uncle, Combat Film and The Non-Persons: Italians in the Holocaust.

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James P. Othmer

James P. Othmer studied journalism at Northeastern University in Boston and received a master's degree in creative writing from New York University. Othmer wrote for The Boston Globe, The Associated Press out of Boston and was a metro reporter for the New Haven Register before turning to advertising, where he worked on accounts for major companies such as Dannon, AT&T and Colgate. The Futurist, gave him a chance to poke fun at the corporate culture, globalization and American excesses – and to realize that the advertising world he left recently didn't snap his creativity but actually sparked it.

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Kachi A. Ozumba

Kachi A. Ozumba was born in Nigeria in 1972. He is a winner of the Art Council England’s Decibel Penguin Short Story Prize and of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. His stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and appeared in many journals and anthologies. He lives in Newcastle where he is pursuing a research degree in literature/creative writing while working on his next novel.

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Robert M. Pirsig

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Robert M. Pirsig has achieved world fame and classic status for his iconic book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. This was followed, seventeen years later, by Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, an updated version of which was published by Alma in 2006.

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Carmen Posadas

Carmen Posadas has consistently topped the bestseller charts in Latin America, Spain, France, and Italy. Born in Uruguay and raised in Europe, she attended a British boarding school, where she absorbed the English masters in her field, from Daphne du Maurier to Roald Dahl. As a novelist she has developed a highly original narrative voice, a perfect blend combining an absurdist sense of the uncanny with a mastery of characterization and plotting, which she attributes to her penchant for Anglo-American authors such as Henry James. Critics have hailed her fiction as the perfect blend of Agatha Christie and Pedro Almodóvar.

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Emili Rosales

Emili Rosales was born in Sant Carles de la Ràpita in 1968. He works as a publisher and has been a regular contributor to the newspapers Avui and La Vanguardia. He has been described by critics as one of the most interesting voices of the new generation of Catalan writers. The Invisible City is his fourth novel and an international bestseller.

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Mitsugu Saotome

Born in China, Mitsugu Saotome won the Naoki Prize for his novel Kyojin no ori (The Cage of the Traveller). From an early age he wrote historical fiction, an interest that he claims to be derived from his ancient samurai heritage. A prolific writer, his novels are immensely popular in Japan.

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Mike Stocks

Mike Stocks was born in Lancashire and educated at Birmingham University, and currently lives in Edinburgh. He writes novels, poetry and translations, and has worked both as a lexicographer and as an editor for several British publishers. He is the founder of Anon, the anonymous submissions poetry magazine. His debut novel, White Man Falling, won the Goss First Novel Award. His poetry collection Folly is published by Herla, and his translations of Roman poet Belli by Oneworld Classics.

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Sarah Stonich

Sarah Stonich has been awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship and a Loft McKnight Fellowship, among others. Her first novel, These Granite Islands, was a critical success. It was translated into seven languages and shortlisted for France’s prestigious Grand Prix de lectrices d’Elle. In 2005 she moderated discussions at the Irish Writers’ Festival in Aspen in panels featuring Edna O’Brien, Jamie O’Neill, Colum McCann, Nuala O’Faolin and others. Irish traditions of storytelling have been most inspiring to her as a writer.

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Lydia Syson

Lydia Syson is a writer whose early career was largely spent as a producer for the BBC World Service. She has four children and lives in London.

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Alexander Terekhov

Alexander Terekhov graduated from Moscow University’s Department of Journalism and won acclaim as a writer of short stories. His work has since been translated into French, German and English. He spent his childhood in a small industrial town in central Russia, which still preserved “the spirit of the early builders of communism”, and his resulting disillusionment underlies both the complex structure and the atmospheric milieu of The Rat Killer.

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Sofia Tolstoy

Sofia Tolstoy was the wife of Leo Tolstoy for nearly fifty years. She gave birth to his thirteen children and raised his numerous grandchildren, keeping a detailed diary of her entire married life.

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Yasutaka Tsutsui

The winner of various awards, including the Izumi Kyoka Prize, the Kawabata Prize and the Yomiuri Literary Prize, Yasutaka Tsutsui is one of the leading Japanese novelists and short-story writers. Many of his works have been adapted into plays, animes and movies.

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William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann is the author of seventeen books, including Europe Central, winner of the National Book Award. He has also won the Whiting Writers Award, the PEN Center/USA West Award, and the Srauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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Jun'ichi Watanabe

Jun'ichi Watanabe was born in Hokkaido. After graduating, he became an orthopaedic surgeon, but in 1969 he resigned this post and moved to Tokyo to pursue a full-time career as a writer. The recipient of prestigious literary awards such as the Naoki Prize and the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize, Watanabe has written numerous scientific texts as well as biographical books and works of fiction, many of which have been made into films.

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Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead is the author of the novels The Intuitionist, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and John Henry Days, which won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and the Young Lions Fiction Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. The Colossus of New York, an essay collection about the city, was a New York Times Notable Book. A recipient of a Whiting Writer’s Award and a MacArthur Fellowship, he lives in New York City.

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Adrian Woodhouse

Adrian Woodhouse is a journalist, a writer and a lecturer in photography, the media and the arts. Previously the editor of the 'Londoner’s Diary' in the Evening Standard, he contributes to the Telegraph Magazine, Tatler, Country Life and Homes & Gardens. His other books include Eighties In the Shade, Susie Cooper and Beresford Egan.

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