Illustrating the postcolonial experience': 40 years of Peepal Tree Press

"Hello and welcome to the Long Wave. This week, I had the huge pleasure of an audience with Peepal Tree Press, which has been home to authors such as Bernardine Evaristo and Roger Robinson. Peepal Tree publishes books from the Caribbean and its diaspora, and has just celebrated its 40th anniversary. I spoke to its founder, Jeremy Poynting, and fiction editor Jacob Ross, and what ensued was a masterclass not only in publishing, but in diasporic art."

"It is still based in the same house in Leeds where it was launched in 1985. Peepal Tree began, Poynting says, as an expensive hobby. Poynting had just completed a PhD on Caribbean writing, and in the course of his travels and research, met people who had books that they couldn't get published. I thought there was a niche there, he says."

"There was no publishing industry in the Caribbean to speak of, and in the UK, large publishing houses were not interested in Black diaspora books that were not selling at commercial volumes. In the Caribbean itself, distribution was such a problem that it deterred publishing. The region had such poor interconnections. You had to deal individually with every bookseller, and writing about the Caribbean was not much valued in the region. In bookshops, there would be a tiny section for the genre."

Peepal Tree Press publishes books from the Caribbean and its diaspora and has celebrated its 40th anniversary. The press remains based in the same Leeds house where it launched in 1985. Jeremy Poynting founded the press after completing a PhD on Caribbean writing and encountered manuscripts that could not find publishers. The press filled a niche because the Caribbean lacked a strong publishing industry and UK mainstream houses were uninterested in Black diaspora books with low commercial sales. Caribbean distribution problems and weak interconnections hindered publishing. To reduce costs, the press initially bought a printing press and printed books in a garage, handling typesetting and printing for twelve years.

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