Leeds-based independent Peepal Tree Press will celebrate 40 years as the world’s leading publisher of Caribbean and Black British literature with an evening of readings at the University of Leeds on Thursday 13 November.
Still based in the same redbrick house in the Leeds suburb of Burley, the Press’s many successes have included Costa Novel and Book of the Year Awards for The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey, and the T.S. Eliot Prize and Ondaatje Award for Roger Robinson’s A Portable Paradise. In 1994, they published the first book by future Booker Prize-winner Bernardine Evaristo.
Through the Caribbean Modern Classics Series, launched in 2009, Peepal Tree Press has advocated for the reappraisal and wider reception of long out-of-print works by writers from the Caribbean and diaspora. The series includes several volumes of fiction, poetry and memoir by Edgar Mittelholzer, the earliest professional novelist from the English-speaking Caribbean, and five titles by the great Jamaican writer Andrew Salkey. Peepal Tree has also collected two volumes of plays by the Trinidadian writer Samuel Selvon, author of the classic novel of the Windrush generation The Lonely Londoners.
Bringing important historic literature back from obscurity and supporting emerging and established living writers, “this is a publishing house that punches well above its weight”, says the Press’s Associate Fiction Editor Jacob Ross. Ross, himself an award-winning novelist and short story writer, will be reading from his work at the celebration event; Peepal Tree’s Associate Poetry Editor Kwame Dawes is also the Poet Laureate of Jamaica.
“Peepal Tree Press has gone through half-a-dozen incarnations”, says founder Jeremy Poynting. “We still run on a shoestring but have survived in that way for 30 years. We are committed to developing and changing into the future.” The Press’s dedication to publishing “not best sellers, but long sellers”, though, remains a constant. It has published over 450 titles, most still in print, and annual output is now around 20 books a year. “I’m deeply looking forward to marking 40 years of Peepal Tree Press in the company of so many of our writers, and to celebrating this enduring relationship with Leeds, and the University — the place where my journey as a writer, scholar, and publisher began. If I were a stick of rock, you’d find ‘LEEDS’ written all the way through.”
The Press’s latest release is the second collection of poetry by Emily Zobel Marshall, who will also be taking the stage at the celebration. She will be joined in the University’s Workshop Theatre by fellow Peepal Tree writers Ferdinand Dennis, David Lambert, Sharon Millar, Jacob Ross, Amanda Smyth, Melody Walker, Adam Lowe, Monica Minott, Shauna M. Morgan, Seni Seneviratne and Dorothea Smartt. Two more poets on the Peepal Tree roster, Malika Booker, former Cultural Fellow in Creative Writing at the University, and Khadijah Ibrahiim, an alumna and an honorary Doctor of Letters, will host the event, which runs from 7.30pm – 9pm.
The celebration will also mark the cataloguing of the Peepal Tree Press Archive, held in
Cultural Collections at the University of Leeds. Literary Curator in Cultural Collections Sarah
Prescott comments:
“This Archive is a comprehensive record of the work of Peepal Tree Press, evidence of 40
years of creative endeavour and persistence. It is an exceptional resource for research into
Caribbean and Black British writing, and independent publishing. We are very lucky to be
able to add it to our collections.”
40 Years of Peepal Tree Press will be celebrated at the University of Leeds on Thursday 13
November with readings in the Workshop Theatre from 7.30pm. Admission is free and open
to all, and tickets can be booked at openup.leeds.ac.uk.
LISTING
Thu 13 Nov 2025 7.30pm – 9.00pm
40 Years of Peepal Tree Press: A Celebration
Join us for an evening of readings from voices that shape the legacy of Peepal Tree Press as it marks
40 years of publishing Caribbean and Black British writing.
Hosted by Malika Booker and Khadijah Ibrahiim, with readings from Ferdinand Dennis, David
Lambert, Sharon Millar, Jacob Ross, Amanda Smyth, Melody Walker, Adam Lowe, Monica Minott,
Shauna M. Morgan, Seni Seneviratne and Dorothea Smartt.
Come and celebrate four decades of radical publishing, poetic truth and literary community.
Workshop Theatre, Cavendish Road, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT
Admission free and all welcome.
Booking via openup.leeds.ac.uk
