Justin Hill, poet and novelist, grew up in York and currently lives in Hong Kong. Hill’s seven years working with Voluntary Services Overseas in rural China and Africa inspired Ciao Asmara, a factual account of his time in Eritrea, which was short-listed for the 2003 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award. His internationally acclaimed first novel, The Drink and Dream Teahouse, won the 2003 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and a 2002 Betty Trask Award, and was banned by the Government in China. Passing Under Heaven, his second novel, won the 2005 Somerset Maugham Award. In 2005 Hill was awarded the Xiaoxiang Friendship Award by the Governor of Hunan Province for his services to China. He is an assistant Professor at Hong Kong University, Honorary Fellow at Lingnan University and contributing editor for the Asia Literary Review.