Peepal power as book publisher hits 40 years
THIS year is the 40th anniversary of a small independent publisher that has been quietly and steadily making its mark globally from its modest West Yorkshire home. Founded in 1985 and still based in the same redbrick semi-detached house in the Leeds suburb of Burley, Peepal Tree Press is the world’s leading publisher of Caribbean and Black British Literature.
Earlier this month a celebration was held at the University of Leeds with an evening of readings from some of the publisher’s many distinguished writers including Emily Zobel Marshall, Dorothea Smartt, Ferdinand Dennis,
Melody Walker, David Lambert, Sharon Millar, Amanda Smyth, Adam Lowe, Monica Minott, Shauna M Morgan, Seni Seneviratne and Jacob Ross, who is also the Press’s associate fiction editor.
“This is a publishing house that punches well above its weight,” says Ross. “One of the really significant achievements is that it has become one of the most strategically important presses, certainly for Caribbean writers, and it is a kind of seedbed for authors who have gone on to become major literary figures.”
A case in point is Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo whose first book was published by the Press in 1994. Among the Press’s many other successes have been
Roger Robinson’s poetry collection APortable Paradise which won both the T S Eliot Prize and the Ondaatje Award and Ross’s novel The Bone Readers which was awarded the inaugural Jhalak Prize in 2017.
The Press’s stated aim is to bring readers books that ‘make a difference’ and to publish ‘not best sellers, but long sellers’. “One of the things I am most proud of is that we have managed to maintain that ethos and philosophy throughout and we have proved it is possible to do that,” says founder and managing editor Jeremy Poynting. Books we published 30 years ago or more continue to sell; they are books that people are still interested in. Whether a book will sell is the last question we ask about it – our motivation has never been financial. It is about the cultural, social, political and aesthetic value of the work.” A fine example of this is Monique Roffey’s acclaimed novel The Mermaid of Black Conch, which won the Costa Book of the Year award in 2020 and was longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. It was published by Peepal Tree Press after being turned down by several publishers.
“One of the things I have learnt through working with Jeremy is that Peepal Tree Press invests in writers and their careers,” says Ross. “Whereas, in my experience, larger publishers invest in books – and that distinction is fundamental.” Ross is involved in the Leeds Readers and Writers Group, one of the two writer development programmes that the Press runs. “It’s an open forum for writers from Leeds from a range of backgrounds and their ages range from mid-20s up to 80s. We have produced two anthologies so far with people writing in various forms – from poetry to memoir.” Alongside this is Inscribe, a national creative and professional development programme for Black and Asian writers run by co-directors Kadija George and Dorothea Smartt.
The Press has also been a champion of out-of-print works by writers from the Caribbean and diaspora. In 2009 they launched the Caribbean Modern Classics Series which includes several volumes of fiction, poetry and memoir by Edgar Mittelholzer, the earliest professional novelist from the English-speaking Caribbean, five titles by the great Jamaican writer Andrew Salkey and two volumes of plays by Trinidadian writer Samuel Selvon, author of the classic 1956 novel about the Windrush generation, The Lonely Londoners.
The Press’s archive is now held in Cultural Collections at the University of Leeds where it will be accessible to researchers. “I have a long connection with the university – it is where my journey as a writer, scholar and publisher began,” says Poynting. “And we have an established ongoing relationship with the School of English’s Poetry Centre.”
Peepal Tree Press has shown remarkable resilience in a rapidly changing publishing environment and an unwavering commitment to writers and writing. “By persisting and building up a strong list of books and authors and a good following, we are still here and the business exists in a state of relative security,” says Poynting. “We still run on a shoestring but we have survived and we intend to continue developing and adapting into the future.”