The Hawberk team

Hawberk Press is run by Jordan Acosta (Creative Director) and Michael Dodd (Publisher). We met at a book convention in 2014, and after more than 10 years of talking about the publishing industry we finally decided to get into publishing ourselves. Fast forward to 2026, and we’re incredibly proud to be launching Hawberk Press.

We love reading stories that fall outside the usual genre boundaries, but the nature of these stories is that publishers are often wary of taking risks on them. And we get that, we really do! So that’s what we’re here for - to take those risks, and to empower incredible authors to write fantastic stories that readers might otherwise not have the chance to fall in love with. 

You might be wondering what our credentials are, besides being avid readers. Read on to find out a bit more about Jordan and Michael.

Creative Director Jordan trained as an architect before spending his career bringing the past to life in print and broadcast; from Tutankhamun in colour for The Times and the BBC, to album covers for the Manic Street Preachers. He’s also a novelist and a published non-fiction author in multiple languages. His written works are heavily inspired by John le Carré, and when not writing or working on Hawberk projects loves to research and craft Japanese ramen from broth to bowl. You’ll be able to check out Jordan’s script work in our audio drama The Pallid Mask, and in our planned anthology alongside a host of other authors. 

Outside of Hawberk, Publisher Michael works as a freelance editor and technical writer, after years of working in both arts and technology companies. A seasoned blogger and book reviewer, in over a decade of running the Track of Words website he published hundreds of author interviews and over a thousand reviews of novels, novellas, short stories and audio dramas. Originally from Lancashire, he now lives in Windsor surrounded by books and guitars.