Meadowhawk Press: Publisher of Speculative Fiction.
Meadowhawk Press was a publisher of Speculative Fiction. This was their website. Content below is from the site's 2006-2009 archived pages and other outside sources.
Meadowhawk Press' goal is to bring to the public quality fiction that characterizes integrity and hope, while offering the same ideals to its writers, vendors, and distributors.
We believe that integrity and respect are guiding principles in business.
AUTHORS
David Walton
David Walton lives in the Philadelphia suburbs in a house safely outside the crater radius. By day, he writes Top Secret software for a large defense contractor, and by night he juggles five children, none of whom were around to see the end of the twentieth century. In the wee hours in between, he makes digital copies of his brain to do his writing for him while he sleeps. His wife reads all of his fiction and improves it immeasurably. His children can't read, but they think their Daddy is pretty great anyway.
David's short fiction has appeared in many magazines and anthologies, most notably Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Futurismic, and the Meadowhawk Press anthology Touched by Wonder. A complete list of his fiction can be found at his website, www.davidwaltonfiction.com .
Elizabeth Keller
Elizabeth Keller lives in New York State. She spent two years teaching English and History in Shanghai where she also developed an uncanny ability to elbow her way onto a bus. She has taught freshman writing for two and a half years at the University of Massachusetts where she earned her Master's degree. Ms. Keller first met John Zakour about six years ago through his wife and has worked with him on two books, including Illusia.
Jackie Gamber
Jackie Gamber grew up in Michigan, communing with trees when she wasn't writing angsty teen poetry. A veteran of the USAF, she is now a gardener, a homeschooling mom, and an avid believer in leaving a green planet for her grandchildren.
Jackie is known for her tireless efforts in the pursuit of truth and knowledge as an active member of HADS (Humans Against Dragon Stereotypes). She first became sensitive to the effects of media and its misguided portrayal of dragons during the writing of her fantasy novel, Redheart. Of course there are those dragons that fall prey to a darker nature, with the occasional stealing of a cow or razing of a village, but should those violent few represent all dragonkind? She realized she could use her gift to be the voice for dragons everywhere, allowing humans to see that we have more in common with these misunderstood creatures than we realize. The human condition applies as much to them as it does us.
Jackie resides in Tennessee with her husband and two teens. She still enjoys trees and is working on the next book in the Leland Dragon Series.
About Jackie Gamber
Jackie Gamber is an award-winning writer and editor of genre-bending science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal short stories, novels, and screenplays. Jackie has been a member of the professional organizations Science Fiction Writers of America and Horror Writers Association. She was named honorable mention in L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Award, received a Darrell Award for best short story by a Mid-South author, and is winner of the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Award for Imaginative Fiction.
During Jackie's tenure as Executive Editor of Meadowhawk Press, the indie publisher captured Science Fiction's Philip K. Dick Award. At the time, only the fourth small press to win the coveted award. Jackie also edited the award-winning benefit anthology Touched by Wonder, and has been guest editor of the acclaimed dark fiction magazine Shroud.
Jackie is also co-founder and writer/director of Big Imagine, a creative studio established to explore breakout visual fiction. Because she believes there's more than one way to tell a good story.
Visit Jackie on the world wide web at www.jackiegamber.com.
John Zakour
John Zakour is a humor/sf/fantasy writer with an online Master's degree in Human Behavior. He has written zillions (well, thousands) of gags for syndicated comics and comedians (including: Rugrats, Grimmy, Marmaduke, Bound and Gagged, Dennis the Menace, The Tonight Show and, Joan River's TV show). John also writes his own syndicated comic, Working Daze, for United Media, which appears in papers all over the world and has a regular web following with over 50,000 readers. He also has been a regular contributor to Nickelodeon magazine writing Fairly Odd Parents, Rugrats and Jimmy Neutron comic books.
John's first humorous SF mystery, The Plutonium Blonde (DAW 2001, co-written with Larry Ganem) was named one of the top 30 SF books of 2001 by The Chronicle of Science Fiction who called it "the funniest SF book of 2001". Other novels in the series have made the Locus and SF bestseller lists. The fifth book in the series, The Blue-Haired Bombshell, will be released in December 2007 by DAW. John has also sold numerous short stories to anthologies and magazines. A comprehensive list of John's works can be found at his website.
Touched By Wonder Authors
Our Touched By Wonder Anthology showcases writing talent from around the world. From award winning to debut authors, our contributors are as impressive as their fiction.
Novel Guidelines
All manuscripts submitted must contain an element of the speculative. As a genre, speculative fiction includes: science fiction, fantasy, supernatural, alternate history, magic realism, or any combination thereof--including stories that are difficult to define. We are not interested in horror, due to our low resistance to gore and all it entails, or historical fiction in the classic sense. We do not read submissions for screenplays, poetry, mysteries, thrillers, children's, chick lit, romance, erotica or nonfiction.
Meadowhawk Press is focused on speculative fiction that is intelligent and character driven. We want writing that appeals to adults, but is accessible to teens as well. We are looking for protagonists that are 17 years or older. Accessible to us means that while violence and sex may be part of the human condition, it does not have to be graphic or pornographic in the telling. We evaluate adult content based on what is crucial to plot or character arc, and edit accordingly.
**Please note: we are a little heavy on fantasy right now, so we're keen on science fiction, steam punk, dark or urban fantasy. We like to see blended, cross genre, and slipstream stuff as well.
WHERE TO BUY BOOKS
You will find our books at BN.com, Amazon.com and fine bookstores near you--or we encourage you to order books directly from us via the Meadowhawk Store on this website. All orders are processed on PayPal's secure servers--even if you don't have a PayPal account.
In the United States, Meadowhawk Press books are distributed through Ingram Books. If some of the titles show up as backorder or special order, order them anyway and you should have the books within a week. We are constantly restocking their warehouse from our printer. If some of our older titles do not appear in their catalog, please contact us directly.
All of our titles are also available directly from us. Our discount schedule for booksellers is as follows:
| DISCOUNT | SCHEDULE |
| 1-10 books: | 23% discount |
| 11-24 books: | 33% discount |
| 25 or more books: | 38% discount |
Terms: We require new customers to pre-pay their first order in full, including shipping. We will give a shipping quote based on weight and UPS zone. Overseas shipping will be assessed on a per shipment basis.
If you are a new customer, we are happy you found us. Please provide us with a resale certificate or other proof of your business's legal existence to qualify for bookseller discounts. If you are a reader and want a discount, sign up for our mailing list. We have promotional discounts from time to time, and sometimes have pre-order specials on new titles.
We are a small press and manage our order fulfillment on a first-in first-out basis. If you need a rush order, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate you.
If you would like to place your order using a credit card or PayPal, please use our online store. We give an additional 2% discount for pre-payment, and we can also offer media mail rates for smaller quantity orders in the U.S.
Please email us for the bookseller discount codes.
Or, mail your order to:
Meadowhawk Press
9160 Hwy 64 Suite 12 #163
Lakeland, TN 38002
Mail-Order calculation: An easy way to calculate your mail-order total is to go through our online order process. When you get to the final checkout page, select "Mail-in Check" as your payment choice. You may then print out an invoice including your discounts and shipping and mail it in for your order.
Submissions Guidelines
Meadowhawk Press is currently open for novel submissions, please review the following guidelines closely.
If you've got a completed manuscript you think we'd be interested in, please send a query letter in the body of an email and your first 3 chapters as an attachment (in RTF format) to the address below. Please use proper manuscript formatting*. Don't forget to put the word QUERY and the title of your project in the subject field--we'd hate to accidentally delete your query as spam. If you prefer, you may send us a postal submission.
Keep in mind that we really do read each submission, and it takes time to give each writer their due attention, however, if you do not hear back from us within three months, feel free to follow up. And remember, whatever happens, keep writing. Keep believing.
Address queries to: email submission .
* For further information about manuscript formatting, please refer to the SFWA website
MORE AUTHORS
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A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
~G. K. Chesterton
More Background On MeadowHawkPress.com
MeadowHawkPress.com once served as the digital home of Meadowhawk Press, an independent small publisher dedicated to speculative fiction during the mid-2000s. Operating in an era when online-native small presses were reshaping the literary ecosystem, Meadowhawk Press carved out a distinctive niche by emphasizing integrity, author respect, and thoughtful, character-driven storytelling over market trends or mass-market sensationalism.
Though no longer active as a publishing house, MeadowHawkPress.com remains an important digital artifact. Preserved through archival snapshots and secondary references, the site offers insight into how mission-driven independent presses functioned during a transitional period for publishing—when print still dominated distribution, but the internet had become central to discovery, submissions, and community building.
This article explores Meadowhawk Press in depth: its mission, leadership, authors, editorial philosophy, cultural significance, and enduring legacy within speculative fiction.
Ownership and Organizational Structure
Meadowhawk Press was structured as a small, independently operated press, not a corporate imprint or vanity publisher. Its leadership included experienced writers and editors who were active participants in the speculative fiction community rather than distant administrators.
One of the most influential figures associated with Meadowhawk Press was Jackie Gamber, who served as Executive Editor during the press’s most visible period. Under her editorial leadership, Meadowhawk Press achieved rare recognition for a publisher of its size, including winning one of science fiction’s most prestigious awards.
The press operated with a clear ethical framework, explicitly stating that integrity and respect were guiding principles in all business relationships—with writers, vendors, distributors, and readers alike. This positioning distinguished Meadowhawk Press from both larger commercial publishers and less selective micro-presses of the time.
Mission, Goals, and Editorial Philosophy
A Commitment to Integrity and Hope
Meadowhawk Press articulated its mission with unusual clarity: to bring the public quality speculative fiction characterized by integrity and hope, while extending those same values to everyone involved in the publishing process.
Unlike presses that focused primarily on shock value, gore, or trend-driven subgenres, Meadowhawk Press emphasized:
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Thoughtful, character-driven narratives
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Ethical storytelling that respected readers’ intelligence
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Accessibility to adults while remaining appropriate for mature teens
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Editorial discernment over volume
The press made a deliberate choice to exclude graphic horror, citing a low tolerance for gratuitous gore. This was not a rejection of darkness or complexity, but rather an assertion that emotional and intellectual depth mattered more than explicit content.
Genre Focus
Meadowhawk Press defined speculative fiction broadly, welcoming:
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Science fiction
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Fantasy
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Supernatural fiction
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Alternate history
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Magical realism
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Cross-genre and slipstream works
At various points, the press noted a preference for science fiction, steampunk, urban fantasy, and blended genres, especially when traditional fantasy submissions became overly abundant.
This openness to genre-blending positioned Meadowhawk Press as a haven for writers whose work resisted easy categorization.
History and Period of Activity
Active Years: Mid-2000s
Based on archived material, Meadowhawk Press was most active between 2006 and 2009, a period that coincided with significant upheaval in the publishing world. Print-on-demand technology, online retailers like Amazon, and digital submission workflows were lowering barriers to entry for independent publishers—while also increasing competition.
Meadowhawk Press emerged during this window as a credibility-focused small press, seeking to combine professional standards with the flexibility of independent publishing.
A Transitional Publishing Moment
The press operated at a time when:
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Print books were still the dominant format
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E-books were emerging but not yet central
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Small presses relied heavily on distributor relationships
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Author websites, mailing lists, and publisher sites were primary discovery tools
MeadowHawkPress.com reflected this environment, serving simultaneously as a catalog, submission portal, mission statement, and community hub.
Location and Physical Presence
Meadowhawk Press maintained a physical mailing and business address in Lakeland, Tennessee, situating it within the American South rather than traditional publishing centers like New York City.
Mailing Address (historical):
Lakeland, Tennessee (Shelby County region)
This geographic placement underscores Meadowhawk Press’s identity as a decentralized literary operation, proving that meaningful speculative fiction publishing could thrive outside coastal publishing hubs.
Despite its modest physical footprint, the press maintained national and international reach, distributing books through major wholesalers and featuring authors from multiple countries.
Distribution, Sales, and Business Model
Book Distribution
In the United States, Meadowhawk Press titles were distributed through Ingram Books, granting access to bookstores, libraries, and academic buyers nationwide. This was a significant achievement for a small press, as Ingram distribution signaled legitimacy and professionalism.
Books were also available through:
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Amazon
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Barnes & Noble (BN.com)
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Independent bookstores (via special order)
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Direct sales through the Meadowhawk Press online store
Direct-to-Reader and Bookseller Sales
The publisher encouraged direct ordering, offering:
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Tiered discounts for booksellers
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Prepayment incentives
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Media mail options for smaller orders
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Mailing list promotions for readers
This hybrid model—combining wholesale distribution with direct sales—was typical of well-run small presses during the period.
Authors and Creative Community
A Diverse and International Author Roster
One of Meadowhawk Press’s most distinguishing features was its remarkably diverse author list, which included writers from the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and beyond.
Contributors ranged from:
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Award-winning professionals
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Established novelists and editors
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Academics and librarians
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Emerging and debut writers
This blend reflected the press’s commitment to quality over pedigree.
Notable Authors Associated with Meadowhawk Press
The press published or featured work by writers such as:
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Jackie Gamber – award-winning editor and author
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David Walton – later a Philip K. Dick Award-winning novelist
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John Zakour – humor and science fiction writer with mainstream publishing success
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Steven Savile – author tied to major franchises including Warhammer and Star Wars
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Joanne Anderton, Nike Bourke, E.C. Myers, and many others
This roster demonstrates Meadowhawk Press’s role as both a launching pad and a respected venue for speculative fiction talent.
MeadowHawkPress.com represents far more than a defunct publisher’s website. It is a window into a formative period in independent speculative fiction publishing—one defined by ethical commitment, editorial rigor, and belief in the transformative power of story.
Through its thoughtful curation, diverse authorship, and rare industry recognition, Meadowhawk Press earned a place in the cultural history of speculative fiction. Its legacy continues in the work of its authors, the standards it upheld, and the example it set for small presses striving to publish with purpose.
