Wind&Bones Books

Wind&Bones Books Independent publisher of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and works in translation. A member of Publishing Scotland. Distributed by BookSource.

Co-directed by Hannah Stevens and Will Buckingham. Independent publisher of fiction, non-fiction and translation. We also curate writing and philosophy for social change projects. Directed by writers Dr Hannah Stevens & Dr Will Buckingham. A Scottish organisation currently based in Taiwan. We have worked all around the world with groups including survivors of domestic abuse, ex-political prisoners, doctors, directors of international NGOs, LGBTQI+ groups, activists and community educators in conflict areas. Our partners include the BBC, the British Embassy, Greenpeace, the Goethe Institute, Caritas and GIY Ireland. We take our name from Liu Xie, the sixth century Chinese writer. For Liu, good writing requires a combination of liveliness (wind) and rigour (bone). "So cultivate the strength of the wind, and make the bone robust." — Liu Xie

MOTHER TONGUE: Hilda Hoy's meditation on language, culture, and identity.“When I speak Mandarin with my mother, I am rem...
03/10/2026

MOTHER TONGUE: Hilda Hoy's meditation on language, culture, and identity.

“When I speak Mandarin with my mother, I am reminded of the distance that separates us—of my foreignness from the person who made me.”

In Mother Tongue, Hilda Hoy explores the manifold capacities of language: to shape one’s sense of self, to bring together, to hold apart.

Raised in Taiwan by her Taiwanese mother and Canadian father, bilingual from the beginning, Hoy explores her experience of growing up with otherness, and traces how English became her dominant tongue. After many years living in Canada and Europe, her Chinese-speaking self packed into a box and sealed shut, the repercussions of her loss of Mandarin are thrown into sharp focus when her mother is diagnosed with dementia, and begins losing the ability to speak.

A tender exploration of grief and reconnection, of belonging and self, Mother Tongue is the story of a journey to locate one’s voice between hybrid places.

Shortlisted for the W&A Working Class Writers’ Prize 2022. A collection of short stories linked by the theme of tattoos....
02/10/2026

Shortlisted for the W&A Working Class Writers’ Prize 2022. A collection of short stories linked by the theme of tattoos.

Our lives, our experiences and the people we encounter leave behind indelible marks. On the Bodies of Strangers explores marked lives and marked flesh. The stories in this collection are linked by a single thread: the tattoos of their protagonists, traces of experiences and meaning etched onto their skin.

These are stories about the chaos of ordinary lives, about people who are flawed, complicated, but always deeply human. From domestic abuse to unexpected friendship, mixing horror and hope, intimacies and lies, On the Bodies of Strangers explores the many ways we mark each other and ourselves as we deal with the complexities of human behaviour.

In a Taiwanese temple, a saliva goddess vanishes without trace. A Hogmanay party is disrupted by an unexpected guest. In...
01/10/2026

In a Taiwanese temple, a saliva goddess vanishes without trace. A Hogmanay party is disrupted by an unexpected guest. In Taipei, an elderly prophet foretells a subway attack. On the way home from a day in court, a woman finds a sheep tangled in the brambles. Four stories, four writers, four languages: Gaelic, Taiwanese, Mandarin & English.

Tâigael is a first-of-its-kind collaborative writing and translation project, bringing together writers from Scotland and Taiwan, to explore language, translation and culture. These four stories by Elissa Hunter-Dorans (Scotland), Kiú-kiong 玖芎 (Taiwan), Lisa MacDonald (Scotland) and Naomi Sím (Taiwan) cross between languages and cultures to speak of things unspoken, and to find new and surprising connections.

Taiwanese (Tâi-gí) and Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) are languages that have been historically marginalised and suppressed. Taigael presents two newly commissioned short stories in Gaelic, and two in Taiwanese, or Tâi-gí (in both 漢字 and POJ romanisation). And then it translates these stories between the two languages, via Mandarin (Traditional) and English. Each story is published in all four languages, to allow the largest possible audience.

Wind&Bones Books is a small but mighty publishing house, publishing beautifully-crafted fiction, non-fiction, poetry and...
30/09/2026

Wind&Bones Books is a small but mighty publishing house, publishing beautifully-crafted fiction, non-fiction, poetry and translation.

We are run by Wind&Bones CIC, a social enterprise registered in Scotland. At Wind&Bones, we also run projects exploring how writing, storytelling and philosophy can make the world a better place. We believe writing can and does change the world. Not once and for all, but in small ways and large, sometimes incrementally and at other times dramatically.

In our bookshop, you can order our handsome Wind&Bones Paperback Editions direct from us. We ship our paperbacks all over the world, or you can download our books in EPUB format.

You can also download our exquisitely-designed Wind&Bones Shorts in PDF and EPUB format. Our Wind&Bones Shorts include essays, curiosities, creative writing mini-courses, and fiction by writers we love—things too strange, too wayward, or too fine to find a home elsewhere.

We are a tiny team, made up of Dr. Hannah Stevens, and Dr. Will Buckingham.

Happy International Translation Day! What better time to share this collection of stories in translation? We're super-pr...
30/09/2026

Happy International Translation Day! What better time to share this collection of stories in translation? We're super-proud to have published Tâigael: Stories from Taiwanese & Gaelic. And most importantly to have had the pleasure of working with some fantastic writers and translators. Here's looking at all of you folks ❤️

“When I speak Mandarin with my mother, I am reminded of the distance that separates us—of my foreignness from the person...
28/09/2026

“When I speak Mandarin with my mother, I am reminded of the distance that separates us—of my foreignness from the person who made me.”

In Mother Tongue, Hilda Hoy explores the manifold capacities of language: to shape one’s sense of self, to bring together, to hold apart.

Raised in Taiwan by her Taiwanese mother and Canadian father, bilingual from the beginning, Hoy explores her experience of growing up with otherness, and traces how English became her dominant tongue. After many years living in Canada and Europe, her Chinese-speaking self packed into a box and sealed shut, the repercussions of her loss of Mandarin are thrown into sharp focus when her mother is diagnosed with dementia, and begins losing the ability to speak.

A tender exploration of grief and reconnection, of belonging and self, Mother Tongue is the story of a journey to locate one’s voice between hybrid places.

“Four thoughtful and thought-provoking stories in conversation across languages and cultures - how exciting, and how nec...
27/09/2026

“Four thoughtful and thought-provoking stories in conversation across languages and cultures - how exciting, and how necessary!" - Garry MacKenzie, author of Scotland: a Literary Guide for Travellers

Head to our dedicated website and listen to the stories FOR FREE 👇

https://taigael.com/stories/

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