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Peepal Tree Press
Peepal Tree Press is a publisher based in Leeds, England which publishes Caribbean, Black British, and South Asian fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama and academic books. Poet Kwame Dawes has said: "Peepal Tree Press's position as the leading publisher of Caribbean literature, and especially of Caribbean poetry, is unassailable."
Peepal Tree publishes around 20 books a year, mainly from the Caribbean and its diasporas. Caribbean Beat has called it a "publishing lifeline" for Caribbean writers. In the UK, the press is noted for its success with literary prizes, its international readership, and its role in supporting and publishing Black British and British Asian writers.
Peepal Tree Press was first conceived in 1984, after a paper shortage in Guyana halted production of new books in the region. It was officially founded in 1985, and was named after the sacred peepal trees transplanted to the Caribbean with Indian indentured labourers, after founder Jeremy Poynting heard a story of workers gathering under the tree to tell stories. The Guyana Chronicle has said, "Peepal Tree Press is responsible, in a major way, for the burgeoning of Guyanese Literature".
The press is based in Yorkshire, part of the growing independent publishing sector outside London, at 17 King's Avenue, in a residential part of Burley, "a rundown, multicultural part of Leeds". Its work is part-funded by Arts Council England and was included in their 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2023 National Portfolios (prior to this, the company was a Regularly Funded Organisation from 2006). Peepal Tree was initially one of only two publishers of primarily Black-interest titles funded by the Arts Council.
Peepal Tree Press has published more than 450 titles, and maintains a commitment to keeping them in print. The focus of Peepal Tree Press is "on what George Lamming calls the Caribbean nation, wherever it is in the world", though the company is also concerned with Black British writing and South Asian writers of British or Caribbean descent. The list features new writers and established voices, as well as posthumous work from Caribbean writers such as Mahadai Das, Neville Dawes, Anthony McNeill, and Gordon Rohlehr. The press' stated approach is to publish (and republish) "Not best sellers, but long sellers". This remit includes translations of French, Spanish and Dutch Caribbean writers, as well as English-language writers.
Peepal Tree Press has published, in various forms, such writers as Roger Robinson, Bernardine Evaristo, Anthony Kellman, Kwame Dawes, Christian Campbell, Jacob Ross, Kei Miller, Christine Craig, Opal Palmer Adisa, Angela Barry, Ishion Hutchinson, Dorothea Smartt, Alecia McKenzie, Una Marson, Shivanee Ramlochan, Jack Mapanje, Patience Agbabi, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Daljit Nagra, Grace Nichols, Lemn Sissay, John Agard, Vahni Anthony Ezekiel Capildeo, Raymond Antrobus, Keith Jarrett, Rishi Dastidar, Gemma Weekes, Pete Kalu, Maggie Harris, Courttia Newland, Jackie Kay, Jan Lowe Shinebourne, and Kamau Brathwaite. It is a core member of the Northern Fiction Alliance—alongside Comma Press in Manchester, Dead Ink in Liverpool and And Other Stories in Sheffield—which aims to raise the profile of UK publishing outside of London and in the North of England.
After World War II, UK publishers such as Heinemann, Longman and Faber developed various English-language African, Caribbean and Asian writers series. In 1970, James Currey and Heinemann Educational Books (HEB) launched the Caribbean Writers Series to republish notable Caribbean writers, modelled on its earlier African Writers Series (1957) and Writing in Asia Series (1966). The UK was often considered better placed to sell to places such as the Caribbean because of its "ex-colonial" profile. These were academic lists, and so the books were often expected to be representative of a nation or culture.
In the mid-60s, Leeds had a literary scene which attracted writers from around the world. During this period, Peepal Tree Press' founder Jeremy Poynting befriended Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o at the University of Leeds, who inspired his interest in Caribbean literature. At that point a lecturer in further education and a trade unionist, this friendship led Poynting to pursue a PhD in Caribbean literature at the University of Leeds. He first visited the Caribbean in 1976 as part of his research.
Peepal Tree Press
Peepal Tree Press is a publisher based in Leeds, England which publishes Caribbean, Black British, and South Asian fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama and academic books. Poet Kwame Dawes has said: "Peepal Tree Press's position as the leading publisher of Caribbean literature, and especially of Caribbean poetry, is unassailable."
Peepal Tree publishes around 20 books a year, mainly from the Caribbean and its diasporas. Caribbean Beat has called it a "publishing lifeline" for Caribbean writers. In the UK, the press is noted for its success with literary prizes, its international readership, and its role in supporting and publishing Black British and British Asian writers.
Peepal Tree Press was first conceived in 1984, after a paper shortage in Guyana halted production of new books in the region. It was officially founded in 1985, and was named after the sacred peepal trees transplanted to the Caribbean with Indian indentured labourers, after founder Jeremy Poynting heard a story of workers gathering under the tree to tell stories. The Guyana Chronicle has said, "Peepal Tree Press is responsible, in a major way, for the burgeoning of Guyanese Literature".
The press is based in Yorkshire, part of the growing independent publishing sector outside London, at 17 King's Avenue, in a residential part of Burley, "a rundown, multicultural part of Leeds". Its work is part-funded by Arts Council England and was included in their 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2023 National Portfolios (prior to this, the company was a Regularly Funded Organisation from 2006). Peepal Tree was initially one of only two publishers of primarily Black-interest titles funded by the Arts Council.
Peepal Tree Press has published more than 450 titles, and maintains a commitment to keeping them in print. The focus of Peepal Tree Press is "on what George Lamming calls the Caribbean nation, wherever it is in the world", though the company is also concerned with Black British writing and South Asian writers of British or Caribbean descent. The list features new writers and established voices, as well as posthumous work from Caribbean writers such as Mahadai Das, Neville Dawes, Anthony McNeill, and Gordon Rohlehr. The press' stated approach is to publish (and republish) "Not best sellers, but long sellers". This remit includes translations of French, Spanish and Dutch Caribbean writers, as well as English-language writers.
Peepal Tree Press has published, in various forms, such writers as Roger Robinson, Bernardine Evaristo, Anthony Kellman, Kwame Dawes, Christian Campbell, Jacob Ross, Kei Miller, Christine Craig, Opal Palmer Adisa, Angela Barry, Ishion Hutchinson, Dorothea Smartt, Alecia McKenzie, Una Marson, Shivanee Ramlochan, Jack Mapanje, Patience Agbabi, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Daljit Nagra, Grace Nichols, Lemn Sissay, John Agard, Vahni Anthony Ezekiel Capildeo, Raymond Antrobus, Keith Jarrett, Rishi Dastidar, Gemma Weekes, Pete Kalu, Maggie Harris, Courttia Newland, Jackie Kay, Jan Lowe Shinebourne, and Kamau Brathwaite. It is a core member of the Northern Fiction Alliance—alongside Comma Press in Manchester, Dead Ink in Liverpool and And Other Stories in Sheffield—which aims to raise the profile of UK publishing outside of London and in the North of England.
After World War II, UK publishers such as Heinemann, Longman and Faber developed various English-language African, Caribbean and Asian writers series. In 1970, James Currey and Heinemann Educational Books (HEB) launched the Caribbean Writers Series to republish notable Caribbean writers, modelled on its earlier African Writers Series (1957) and Writing in Asia Series (1966). The UK was often considered better placed to sell to places such as the Caribbean because of its "ex-colonial" profile. These were academic lists, and so the books were often expected to be representative of a nation or culture.
In the mid-60s, Leeds had a literary scene which attracted writers from around the world. During this period, Peepal Tree Press' founder Jeremy Poynting befriended Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o at the University of Leeds, who inspired his interest in Caribbean literature. At that point a lecturer in further education and a trade unionist, this friendship led Poynting to pursue a PhD in Caribbean literature at the University of Leeds. He first visited the Caribbean in 1976 as part of his research.