Awa Press is an independent, innovative and wholly New Zealand-owned company. It was founded in 2003 to publish and promote the best of contemporary non-fiction by New Zealand and overseas authors.

We have two passions: one, of course, is books. We love books that are creative, imaginative, daring and accomplished. All the people who have written the books on our list are, to our way of thinking, heroes. Anyone who sits facing a blank page (or more often a screen), day after day, translating thoughts into words, deserves to become a millionaire. Most, though, will be lucky to make a few dollars. They write for another reason, love of words perhaps, or just the thrill of seeing someone reading their book on a bus.

And then there are the people who, through extraordinary alchemy, turn these writers' manuscripts into things of beauty - editors, designers, artists, typesetters, printers. The New Zealanders who do this work for us are second to none in the world.

Despite doom-saying, dire warnings, and the inexorable march of the reality TV show, the human race has continued to make a cup of tea and curl up with a good book. We hope you will curl up with ours.