Bewitched and Beguiled: Poetry of Enchantment Proverse Prize Publication 2026

Bewitched and Beguiled is the winner of a Proverse Publication Prize. It is a collection of poetry drawing on the often tragic tales of the classical world, and concentrating on elements of resonance — poignancy, loneliness, revenge, incisiveness, martyrdom, venal power and temptation. Each poem is introduced with a poet’s note, discussing context and form. The collection opens with two intricately structured crowns of heroic sonnets in iambic pentameter,  drawing first on the sensuous spell-craft of Circe and then on the lucid intelligence of Athena.

Here, enchantment is disciplined and resonant, shaped by rhythm, sound, echoes and the cyclical architecture of the crown itself. The sequence deepens through poems centred on Prometheus and Pandora, where divine ambition and consequence fracture certainty. Form loosens. Tragedy unsettles order. Power reveals its cost. At the collection’s heart, a tonal shift begins.

In ‘If I Were a Mermaid’, existential doubt gives way to volition: the speaker moves from cold uncertainty toward a conscious choice of kindness and joy. What follows is a vibrant unfurling, rollicking, playful,  rich with colour – where goblins, giants, and joy-fairies inhabit a world reshaped not by domination, but by imaginative generosity.

Bewitched and Beguiled honours tradition while ultimately celebrating the liberating power of creative reinvention.The poems are wonderfully enhanced by moody black and whilte illustrations by Clive Solomon. 

Sample from sonnet iii of Circe

Her whispers ling’ring, echoes languid placed, vile creatures roar, but only for a time, their heinous oaths by silence are replaced, though in their heads, their sins, unmuted, chime.Behave as hogs, and hogs they shall become.  If men, all greed, with lust for flesh and vine shall act like pigs, then Circe’s sties, in sum,  shall flow with swill - bold men transformed to swine.Oh, subtle cruel are all of Circe’s charms, seductive soft as calm as summer breeze, her teasing touch arrests all coy alarms as prone man lies, and she, on bended knees,a building tide, as wild and wet as waves, cajoles and calls and passion washes wild, her powers pooling, till at last enslaved, transformed is he to beast and she to child, garbed in innocence sweet regained, but alas, alas - naught is e’er the same.

Florilegium: International Proverse Prize Finalist 2025

Florilegium is a regency historical fantasy that blends real botanical history with enchantment, intrigue, and romance. Inspired by the expeditions of Sir Joseph Banks and Captain Cook, it follows Diana Banks-Morton—an intelligent, unconventional young woman who inherits a florilegium of thousands of botanical specimens, an arcane journal, and a musical automaton from her formidable great-aunt.

Alongside coins, clocks, and carefully preserved curiosities, these artefacts form a legacy that is as mysterious as it is magnificent.

The music box reveals not merely a melody, but an entire hidden world: a secret society where botanical specimens carry power, memory, and consequence, and where the boundaries between science and magic dissolve. As Diana’s rare artistic gift awakens, paint on petal, petal to paint, she is drawn into a web of coded journals, scent-driven enchantment, and long-buried truths tied to the Crown—including  suppressed royal histories with secrets startlingly germane to the succession.

But what if The Florilegium itself has been betrayed? 

What if powerful magical artifacts are falling into the wrong hands? 

What if there is a race against time itself, a gigantic puzzle to piece together, with magic, wit, luck and a little help from unexpected places?

Magic, that is what, and brilliance, and laughter and a strange delight in discovering the points at which science, whimsy and enchantment converge.

At her side is Marcus Rochester—perceptive, wry, and a brilliant foil to her wit—with powers of his own, including an uncanny ability with clocks, a remarkable olfactory acuity, and a wicked sense of humour.

Their partnership is instinctive and assured, grounded in mutual respect and intellectual kinship. It deepens into a connection that proves as steady as it is transformative.

Wry, atmospheric, and subtly subversive, Florilegium is a story of discovery, inheritance, and the courage to shape fate—

where knowledge is power, memory sentient, and even the most delicate petals can alter the course of history.

Cost and Consequence: A Sanditon Novel. International Proverse Prize Finalist 2025

Cost and Consequence continues Austen’s final vision, beginning with her original fragment as canon and extending it into a richly layered novel of social satire, romance, and transformation. Set in the aftermath of Waterloo, it explores a society in flux: class boundaries shifting, innovation emerging, and old certainties dissolving.

At its centre lie several romances, a number of calamities, and a good deal of social unravelling. There is also Charlotte Heywood, caught between Sidney Parker’s polished charm and the connection she forms with Lennox Somerset.  His work with prosthetics for injured veterans signals the broader thematic movement toward renewal and purpose.

Around her, Sanditon teems with intrigue, rivalry, humour, and evolving friendships.

Arthur Parker pursues the great pursuits of life—food, pleasure, and the pursuit of more food—with such earnest delight that he inadvertently inspires a most unexpected culinary romance. Meanwhile, Sir Rupert Altringham, equal parts brilliance and peacock, finds his ambitions for a gambling establishment repeatedly thwarted by the formidable Miss Diana Parker, in a rivalry conducted with alarming civility across tea rooms, drawing rooms, and the polite boundaries of reform.

Comic and romantic threads intertwine with themes of compassion, innovation, and social change, as Sanditon begins to reimagine what it might become.

What it might become  takes courage, tenacity, and a measure of shared vision; a little poetic justice, a decisive ousting of malice, and—most essentially—a community willing to grow together.

That is not to say there is not scheming, high jinx, melodrama, mischief, malice and an elopement gone horribly wrong, but by and large, sense prevails. Grandiose aspirations are seen through  a new lens: they are patently ridiculous. Visionary aspirations are now, with ever increasing momentum, embraced.

A continuation in the spirit of Austen, Cost and Consequence is both homage and invention—concerned equally with the cost of stagnation and the gratifying consequence of kindness, creativity, compassion, and inclusivity.

Once upon a Fairer Time: Classic Tales Revised in Rhyme Proverse Prize Publication Prize Publication 2024

Once Upon a Fairer Time : Classic Tales Revised in Rhyme is a richly imaginative poetry collection that re-envisions classic fairy tales through a lens of compassion, wit, and poetic justice.

In these “fairer” tellings, familiar stories are gently but decisively reshaped: villains are reconsidered, consequences recalibrated, and endings transformed into something more humane, and often more hopeful. A wolf may be driven by hunger rather than malice; a witch, long unpunished, may finally meet a fate of her own making. Each poem offers not only a fresh narrative, but a thoughtful rebalancing of the moral world those tales inhabit.

The collection ranges widely in tone and form—from rollicking, playful verse alive with rhythm and humour to more reflective, lyrical pieces that explore loneliness, longing, and resilience. Throughout, Solomon’s command of voice and cadence brings both energy and emotional depth to each reimagining.

Accompanied by beautiful illustrations by Clive Solomon, the book is further enriched by contextual author’s notes for every poem, offering insight into the origins of each tale and the creative choices behind its transformation.

Both enchanting and incisive, Once Upon a Fairer Time invites readers to revisit the stories they thought they knew—and discover how they might unfold, if told with greater kindness, curiosity, and care. Tongue twisters abound, but that is part of the fun.

Here is a tiny taste of the  poetic justice awaiting  Malificent witch, of  Sleeping Beauty:

And Maleficent witch?  In strange twist and a twitch,   a spellgone quite horribly wrong, her magic has blistered, quite strangled and twisted, with the witch now carried along. Mishap ‘pon mishap, bumble on stumble, weird looking spells, unquelled by each mumble. Through  enchanted branch brambles, she ambles and ambles — she’s lost her way, and her wand....

Oh dear!  Won’t give away more but she deserves it, and she has done it to herself….

Celestial Promise Proverse Publication Prize 2016

Celestial Promise is the winner of the International Proverse Prize 2016 Supplementary Prize.
In this collection of poetry, written over half a lifetime, Hayley Ann Solomon focuses primarily on the pursuit of excellence, immortality achieved through finite life, love in all its forms, and social justice. As it waxes and wanes, the collection cycles through sequences of lyrical ballads, sonnets, elegies, haiku, snippets of nonsensical verse; all blended with a substantial dose of existential philosophy and social comment.

The collection covers a full spectrum, from the darkest psycho-social moments, to zeniths of absolute joy. The liberal use of consonance, assonance, alliteration, echoes and half-echoes, rhyme and cross-rhyme make for a style rich in sound-play. This, together with strong metrical awareness – very often iambic or trochaic pentameter and tetrameter – evokes a flow that is quite typically euphonic. There is therefore a sense of lyricism despite a broad diversity of topics and moods.
The anthology evolves to become a promise of regeneration, in synchrony with the phases of the moon, from which it takes its celestial title.

In these poems Ms Solomon has recreated the world through her eyes.... [She] takes the reader on a safari through several manifestations of the human condition. ... [The] way ... is well lit ... by metaphorical moonlight along a lunar calendar which provides meticulous order to this meaningful journey.
— Randal A. Burd, Jr., M.Ed.

The poet is both romantic and scholar: inviting us to reflect on themes of transience and the cyclical nature of life: urging us to acknowledge the dark while reaching for the light.
—Viki Holmes, author of miss moon's class (Chameleon Press, 2008), Girls' Adventure Stories of Long Ago (Chameleon Press, 2017) and co-editor of Not A Muse (Haven, 2009).

A spirited collection of poems.
—Vaughan Rapatahana, Winner of the inaugural Proverse Poetry Prize.

Incoronata Complete Manuscript, Current Work 2026

INCORONATA — Short Synopsis (~385 words)

Incoronata is an adult mythic fantasy in which Hannah—raised by a sentient cottage—finds herself on an unexpected path, collecting, as she goes, the odd experience, encounter, conversation and choice that positions her to be be in just the right place at just the right time. It is a haphazard journey toward self-belief, intentional magic, and the power of kindness. If Hannah eventually (and entirely accidentally!) becomes High Queen of Faerie, this is purely incidental.

Deep beneath a labyrinth of ancient caverns, an old dragon waits to die.

Her hoard holds more than treasure: each gem contains a memory, and each memory is waiting for the hatching of her heir.. Around her gathers an unlikely circle — a newly awakened polymage, a band of elemental misfits, and a meticulous butler of mysterious pedigree who insists, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, that he is merely the High Butler of Faerie.

The butler, thinks Hannah, is the worst mentor ever. Infuriating, enigmatic, teaching by not teaching, provoking, and determined to drive her mad by speaking alternately in Greek, Latin, Sanskrit and gibberish. (Or so she suspects!) To outwit him, she determines to make herself understand, thus activating her polymagic through intention, will and choice. Hmmm... after that, she is less suspicious of his methods and more suspicious of his charm.  After that... they are a partnership.

As rival kingdoms close in, the Empress chooses sacrifice over war, setting in motion a transformation that will reshape Faerie itself.

In the stillness that follows, grief gives way to something far less orderly:  sharp-witted banter, friendship, love in so many forms, a bond that refuses to stay strictly professional and the cutest, most imperious, quite often decidedly naughty dragon ever!

The catalyst is Hannah's kindness, so it is not surprising that she gather all the elementals accidentally, is rescued by a hedgehog (turns out Parsely is her familiar) and somehow integrates all the magic of all her increasing acquaintances—turned—friends.  There is shy Josh, a brilliant healer, Duchess ( a Holstein—Fresian cow), Abel, a fire mage (newly minted!) and a host of other interesting characters.  There is Cat (short for Catastrophe), Mr Jivvers... but let me keep some of the surprises.

Fun, whimsical, and quietly epic, Incoronata is a story of loyalty, renewal, and the magic of choosing to care — even when one really ought to be polishing the silver.

Under the Shade of the Feijoa Trees and Other Stories Proverse Publication Prize Recipient 2018

Under the shade of the feijoa trees offers a representative sample of Hayley Ann Solomon’s

particular brand of high quality, emotionally resonant short stories.

The styles and intensities vary extensively, but the common denominator is humanity

in all its complexity, woven with philosophy. Some are autobiographical, some could be autobiographical, but are not – have fun trying to guess the difference – and some are magical.

Yes, there is fantasy in there, romance, philosophy, tragedy, heartbreak,

revenge, coming-of-age stories, stories written with a twinkle of the eye,

or with a sigh of wistfulness, or a sprinkle of whimsy.

Some stories border on the lyrical, others are just there to provide a snort of laughter, a gasp, 

or a definite roll of the eye.

All of them have a pinch of whimsy, a dash of the philosophical, a hint of what might have been,

what could have been or what is, in an alternative reality.

This eclectic and very personal collection of short stories by successful writer

of genre fiction and  poet, Hayley Ann Solomon, describes in lyrical detail widely

dispersed places and situations. The stories are well-constructed and intensely-felt

and the author’s joy in the sounds and sequencing of beautiful words is evident.—

Philip Chatting, Winner of the Proverse Prize 2014, author of "The Snow Bridge and Other Stories" (Proverse, 2015).

Selected Historical Romance

Selected Poetry, Novels and Short Stories