Wikipedia

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.[1] Poet Kwame Dawes has said, "Peepal Tree Press’s position as the leading publisher of Caribbean literature, and especially of Caribbean poetry, is unassailable."[2]

Peepal Tree Press
IndustryBook Publishing
Founded1985; 39 years ago (1985)
FounderJeremy Poynting
Headquarters
Leeds, Yorkshire
,
England
Key people
Jeremy Poynting, Hannah Bannister, Kwame Dawes, Jacob Ross, Dorothea Smartt, Kadija Sesay, Adam Lowe (writer)
Number of employees
2 full-time, 9 part-time or freelance
Websitewww.peepaltreepress.com

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.[3]

Peepal Tree publishes around 20 books a year, mainly from the Caribbean and its diasporas.[1] 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".[4][5] 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).[6][7]

Peepal Tree Press has published more than 450 titles, and states a commitment to keeping them in print.[1] The list features new writers and established voices, as well as posthumous work from Caribbean writers such as Mahadai Das,[8] Neville Dawes,[9] Anthony McNeill,[10] and Gordon Rohlehr.[11] In 2009 the press launched the Caribbean Modern Classics Series, which restores to print important books from the 1950s onwards, such as Edgar Mittelholzer's My Bones and My Flute,[12] George Lamming's Water with Berries[13], Una Marson's Selected Poems[14] and Seepersad Naipaul's Gurudeva and Other Indian Tales.[15][16] The press' stated approach is to publish (and republish) "Not best sellers, but long sellers".[10]

The focus of Peepal Tree Press is "on what George Lamming calls the Caribbean nation, wherever it is in the world",[3] though the company is also concerned with Black British writing and South Asian writers of British or Caribbean descent.[17] This includes translations of French, Spanish and Dutch Caribbean writers, as well as English-language writers.[10]

Peepal Tree Press has published, in various forms, such writers as T. S. Eliot Prize-winner Roger Robinson, Booker Prize-winner Bernardine Evaristo, Anthony Kellman, Emmy Award-winner Kwame Dawes, his father Neville Dawes, Aldeburgh Poetry Prize-winner and Forward Poetry Prize-nominee Christian Campbell, Jhalak Prize-winner Jacob Ross, 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 Capildeo, Raymond Antrobus, Keith Jarrett, Rishi Dastidar, Gemma Weekes, Pete Kalu, Maggie Harris, Courttia Newland, Jackie Kay, Jan Shinebourne, and Kamau Brathwaite.[18][19]

History edit

In the mid-60s, the 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. He first visited the region in 1976 as part of his research.[3][15]

By this point, Poynting was also part of an informal literary circle led by his friends John La Rose and Sarah White at New Beacon Books, who were involved in the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM) and organised the International Book Fair of Black, Radical and Third World Books with Jessica Huntley of Bogle-L’Overture Publications. These relationships would, Poynting says, lay the foundation and inspiration for what would become Peepal Tree Press.[20]

In 1984, while visiting Guyana, Poynting saw local writer Rooplall Monar acting out some of his stories in the ruins of the Lusignan sugar estate. Forbes Burnham's authoritarian regime had led to a paper shortage in the country, so publishing opportunities in Guyana were slim. When Monar despaired that they would never see print, Poynting decided to publish the stories back in the UK, knowing he had friends and colleagues who would also be interested in the work.[1][20]

In 1985, Poynting printed Monar's Backdam People at Thomas Danby College, where he worked. Though publishers like Heinemann and Longman had stopped publishing Caribbean books, he was assured of a demand when this first title sold out its modest print run of 400 at the International Book Fair of Black, Radical and Third World Books.[20][3] The name chosen for the new press was intended both as a pun (as a homophone for "people") and as a symbol of the diaspora. It is named for the holy bodhi tree, brought as seeds by indentured Hindu workers to the Caribbean, so it represents something dispersed which sets down roots in a new location. At the time, Indians in some parts of the Caribbean were also politically and socially marginalised, so the name was also political.[3][21]

With the help of his son, Poynting moved production to his own home garage, using a second-hand Rotaprint offset printer held together with an elastic band and a folding machine paid for with an Arts Council grant. Prices were low but the quality of books remained high.[22] Eventually Poynting moved operations to a property at 17 King's Avenue in Burley.[1][23][21]

After the Arts Council offered him a subsequent development grant, Poynting went part-time in his job at Thomas Danby, producing books with the remainder of his week. Peepal Tree also received a grant from the Centre for Research in Asian Migration at the University of Warwick (CRAM). To subsidise the literary publishing, Poynting took on commercial print jobs.[21][22]

In 1994, Hannah Bannister joined the company, initially as an intern, helping to expand the business and becoming its Operations Manager.[1] That year, the press also published Kwame Dawes' debut collection, Progeny of Air. Dawes had submitted to the press without seeing any of its books, based on the recommendation of Edward Baugh. Although the book was written and contracted after his second published book, Resisting the Anomie, Peepal Tree's small list, team of two, and on-site printer meant they could produce the book faster than Fredericton (though Dawes was still pleased with how thorough the editing was).[24]

On 18 May 1995, a small group of business-minded friends and supporters, including Caribbean poets Ian McDonald and Ralph Thompson, helped turn the press into a limited company.[25][26]

In 2006, Kwame Dawes came onboard as a guest editor.[21]

By 2010, due to advances in digital printing, the press was able to completely cease its print activities and focus more on its editorial and publishing work. To support this expanded work, Kwame Dawes took a permanent role as associate poetry editor, while novelist Jacob Ross joined the press as associate fiction editor. Poet Adam Lowe also joined the press, handling social media and publicity.[1][27] Echoing Dawes' relationship with the press, though in reverse, both Ross and Lowe would also go on to be published by Peepal Tree.[28][29]

Since expanding, Peepal Tree has been involved in a number of partnerships. These include partnering with the Leeds Soroptimists and Ilkley Literature Festival for the SI Leeds Literature Prize, and with Akashic Books, Bocas LitFest, the Commonwealth Foundation and the British Council on CaribLit.[30]

In 2020, Peepal Tree published academic Corinne Fowler's Green Unpleasant Land, which attracted controversy from the Conservative Party's Common Sense Group for exploring connections between the British countryside and the empire.[31]

Today, Peepal Tree continues to produce books in the UK for the Caribbean market, because of the challenges involved in producing and distributing the books within the region.[20][21] Peepal Tree also supports Black British writing in the broader sense. It describes itself as curating and preserving these literatures, saying, "We provide a welcoming home for Caribbean and Black British writing […] our writers regard Peepal Tree as a family open to multiple ideas about what being Black means."[20]

Awards edit

In 1994, Kwame Dawes' Progeny of Air won the Forward First Book Prize.[24]

In 2017, Jacob Ross won the inaugural Jhalak Prize for his novel, The Bone Readers.[32] In 2022, it was also selected as part of the Big Jubilee Read programme, celebrating the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II with books by 70 writers from across the Commonwealth.[33]

In 2020, Roger Robinson's A Portable Paradise won the 2019 T.S. Eliot Prize[34] and Ondaatje Prize.[35]

In 2021, Monique Roffey's The Mermaid of Black Conch won the 2020 Costa Novel and Book of the Year Awards.[36] It was also shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize[37] and longlisted for the 2021 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.[38] The book is inspired by Taíno mythology.[39]

Peepal Tree and its titles have also won the Casa de la Américas Literary Award, the Clarissa Luard Award for innovation in publishing, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, and the Felix Dennis Best First Collection Prize.[1]

CaribLit and Peekash Press edit

As part of the CaribLit project, Peepal Tree Press and Akashic Books established a joint imprint, Peekash Press, in 2014.[40][41] This saw the publication of Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean, an anthology of the Caribbean entries to the 2013 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, published simultaneously by Akashic in North America and Peepal Tree in the UK and Caribbean.[42][43] This was followed by two more joint publications: Coming Up Hot: Eight New Poets from the Caribbean in 2015;[44][45] and New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean, edited by Karen Lord, in 2016.[46][47]

Recognising the continued dearth of publishers in the Caribbean, Peekash was created to embed a local publishing house within the region, drawing upon the resources and expertise of Akashic in Brooklyn, NY and Peepal Tree in Leeds, UK. To fulfil this mission, editorial control and the daily operation of Peekash was transferred to the originators of the CaribLit project, Bocas LitFest, in 2017.[40]

HopeRoad Publishing edit

On 1 February 2024, Peepal Tree announced that it was partnering with HopeRoad Publishing, widening the press' focus from the Caribbean and Britain to cover Asia and Africa as well.[48] HopeRoad was set up by Rosemarie Hudson in 2010, who was joined by Pete Ayrton (founder of Serpent's Tail) in 2019. Ayrton handles the Small Axes imprint, reissuing "post-colonial classics" that were previously out of print. HopeRoad will select and edit its own books, while Peepal Tree handles production and distribution.[48]

With this new, broader remit, Peepal Tree's slogan changed from "Home of the Best in Caribbean and Black British Writing" to "Decolonising bookshelves since 1985".[49]

Inscribe edit

Peepal Tree Press is also recognised for Inscribe (and Young Inscribe), an imprint and writer development project which supports emerging writers of African and Asian descent in the UK. Founded in 2004, it is run by co-directors Kadija George and Dorothea Smartt, and has supported such writers such as Adam Lowe, Degna Stone, Khadijah Ibrahiim, Seni Seneviratne and Rommi Smith, who has been Writer-in-Residence for the Houses of Parliament, the BBC during the Commonwealth Games, BBC Music Live, the British Council at California State University in Los Angeles, and Keats House.[30] Inscribe also runs a readers and writers group for local writers in Leeds.[30]

The Inscribe imprint, under Series Editor Kadija Sesay (pen name of Kadija George), publishes anthologies of contemporary Black British and British Asian writing, such as Red: Contemporary Black British Poetry (edited by Kwame Dawes),[50] Closure: Contemporary Black British Short Stories (edited by Jacob Ross),[51] Filigree: Contemporary Black British Poetry (edited by Nii Ayikwei Parkes)[52] and Glimpse: An Anthology of Black British Speculative Fiction (edited by Leone Ross).[53][30] It also publishes chapbooks and pamphlets of Black British writers, including Sai Murray, Degna Stone, and Maya Chowdhry.[54]

New Caribbean Voices edit

In November 2017, Peepal Tree Press was awarded the Clarissa Luard Award for Independent Publishers, with plans announced to use the £10,000 prize money for a podcast project, New Caribbean Voices (inspired by the BBC World Service's Caribbean Voices radio show).[55][56]

The podcast launched in 2019, hosted by the British Guyanese-Grenadian poet Malika Booker and produced by Melody Triumph. The first episode featured Barbara Jenkins reading from her debut novel De Rightest Place, Shivanee Ramlochan reviewing Caribbean books, and music by Chris Campbell.[57]

SI Leeds Literary Prize edit

Peepal Tree Press is a founding core partner in the SI Leeds Literary Prize for unpublished fiction written by Black and Asian women resident in the UK, along with the Leeds chapter of Soroptimist International and the Ilkley Literature Festival.[58][59][60] The press also published the prize's inaugural winner, Minoli Salgado and her novel A Little Dust on the Eyes, in 2014. The book was later shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.[61]

Kit de Waal was shortlisted for the second biannual SI Leeds Literary Prize, in 2014.[62]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "About Us". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  2. ^ "Finding a Home: Peepal Tree and Caribbean Literature". smallaxe.net. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Branching Out: Peepal Tree Press", Spike Magazine, 7 April 2011.
  4. ^ "About Us". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  5. ^ Originally published in The Weekender Supplement of The Daily Herald (Sint Maarten), on Saturday 22 October 2011. Republished at memofromlalaland (24 October 2011). "Peepal Tree Press: The White Knight of Caribbean Literature". MEMO FROM LA–LA LAND. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  6. ^ "Download the full list of our National Portfolio Organisations". Arts Council England. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  7. ^ "The Double Negative » Full List of Successful Arts Council England NPOs in The North For 2023-26. But Who Lost Out?". Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  8. ^ "Mahadai Das". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  9. ^ "Fugue and Other Writings". Peepal Tree Press. 15 October 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  10. ^ a b c Originally published in The Weekender Supplement of The Daily Herald (Sint Maarten), on Saturday 22 October 2011. Republished at memofromlalaland (24 October 2011). "Peepal Tree Press: The White Knight of Caribbean Literature". MEMO FROM LA–LA LAND. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  11. ^ "A Literary Friendship: Selected Notes on the Kamau Brathwaite, Gordon Rohlehr Correspondence". Peepal Tree Press. 21 March 2024. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  12. ^ "Edgar Mittelholzer". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  13. ^ "Water with Berries". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  14. ^ "Una Marson: Selected Poems". Peepal Tree Press. 11 May 2011. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  15. ^ a b "Writing worth keeping alive", Jeremy Poynting interviewed by Nicholas Laughlin, Caribbean Review of Books, May 2010.
  16. ^ "Seepersad Naipaul". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  17. ^ "Black Britons". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  18. ^ "Books". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  19. ^ "Publisher: Peepal Tree Press, Limited | Open Library". openlibrary.org. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  20. ^ a b c d e "Making a Home: A Profile on Peepal Tree Press". dura-dundee.org.uk. 9 January 2020. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  21. ^ a b c d e Lee, Simon (1 July 2006). "Peepal Tree Press spreads its branches". Caribbean Beat Magazine. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  22. ^ a b "PN Review Print and Online Poetry Magazine - CARIBBEAN CORNUCOPIA: PEEPALTREE PRESS Ruth Morse - PN Review 97". www.pnreview.co.uk. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  23. ^ "Appreciating Smaller Publishers: Peepal Tree Press". about.proquest.com. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  24. ^ a b "Finding a Home: Peepal Tree and Caribbean Literature". smallaxe.net. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  25. ^ "About Us". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  26. ^ "PEEPAL TREE PRESS LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  27. ^ "About Us: Adam Lowe (Social Media & Publicity)". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  28. ^ "The Bone Readers". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  29. ^ "Patterflash". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  30. ^ a b c d "Inscribe". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  31. ^ Davies, Dominic (4 March 2022). "Green unpleasant land: Creative responses to rural England's colonial connections: by Corinne Fowler, Leeds, Peepal Tree Press, 324 pp., £19.99 (paperback), ISBN 9781845234829". Journal of Postcolonial Writing. 58 (2): 286–287. doi:10.1080/17449855.2022.2066520. ISSN 1744-9855.
  32. ^ "Jacob Ross wins inaugural Jhalak Prize". The Bookseller. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  33. ^ Sherwood, Harriet; Arts, Harriet Sherwood; correspondent, culture (18 April 2022). "The God of Small Things to Shuggie Bain: the Queen's jubilee book list". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  34. ^ Cain, Sian (13 January 2020). "British-Trinidadian dub poet Roger Robinson wins TS Eliot prize". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  35. ^ Flood, Alison (4 May 2020). "Roger Robinson's poems of Trinidad and London win Ondaatje prize". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  36. ^ Correspondent, David Sanderson, Arts (23 May 2024). "Monique Roffey's The Mermaid of Black Conch wins Costa Book of the Year". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 23 May 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  37. ^ "The Mermaid of Black Conch". Goldsmiths, University of London. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  38. ^ "The Mermaid of Black Conch | The Orwell Foundation". www.orwellfoundation.com. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  39. ^ Nies, Betsy (3 April 2021). "Mer-beings among Us: Three Contemporary Novels: The Deep, Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Hutton, and Jonathan Snipes; She Down There, Lynton Francois Burger; The Mermaid of Black Conch, Monique Roffey". Wasafiri. 36 (2): 93–96. doi:10.1080/02690055.2021.1879518. ISSN 0269-0055.
  40. ^ a b "About Us - Peekash Press". 10 November 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  41. ^ "Peekash Press Archives". Akashic Books. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  42. ^ "Pepperpot". Peepal Tree Press. 1 April 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  43. ^ "Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean - Peekash Press". Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  44. ^ "Coming Up Hot". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  45. ^ "Coming Up Hot: Eight New Poets from the Caribbean - Peekash Press". Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  46. ^ "New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean - Peekash Press". Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  47. ^ "New Worlds, Old Ways". Peepal Tree Press. 25 July 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  48. ^ a b "Peepal Tree Press joins forces with HopeRoad Publishing". The Bookseller. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  49. ^ "HopeRoad Publishing". Peepal Tree Press. 1 February 2024. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  50. ^ "Red: Contemporary Black British Poetry". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  51. ^ "Closure: Contemporary Black British Short Stories". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  52. ^ "Filigree: Contemporary Black British Poetry". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  53. ^ "Glimpse: An Anthology of Black British Speculative Fiction". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  54. ^ "Inscribe (Classification)". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  55. ^ Katherine Cowdrey, "Peepal Tree scoops £10k Clarissa Luard Award", The Bookseller, 9 November 2017.
  56. ^ "New Caribbean Voices: Episode One". Peepal Tree Press. 28 November 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  57. ^ "New Caribbean Voices: Episode One". Peepal Tree Press. 28 November 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  58. ^ Our Partners: Peepal Tree Press, SI Leeds Literary Prize.
  59. ^ "SI Leeds Literary Prize", Soroptimist International Great Britain & Ireland.
  60. ^ "About the SI Leeds Literary Prize". SI Leeds Literary Prize. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  61. ^ "Minoli Salgado". Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  62. ^ "2014 Shortlist". SI Leeds Literary Prize. Retrieved 23 May 2024.

External links edit

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