Blog

We are delighted to report that Peepal Tree's Founder and Managing Editor, Jeremy Poynting, is to be given the prestigious Bocas Henry Swanzy Award in recognition of his work!

The prize is awarded at 2016 NGC Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago’s festival of words, stories, and ideas. and is named for the late BBC radio producer (1915–2004) who created a landmark platform for Caribbean writing in the 1940s and 50s through the Caribbean Voices programme, which broadcast fiction and poems by West Indian writers across the region.

Peepal Tree Press will be heading off to the London Radical Bookfair on 7 May from 12-7pm. We'll be stocking some of our very best titles for sale on the day. We hope to see you there!

This year's bookfair takes place across three floors of converted warehouse: Ugly Duck, 47/49 Tanner Street, SE1 3PL.

Find out more at the London Radical Bookfair website.

Our last Inscribe masterclass, which took place at Commonword in Manchester, was a roaring success. Nii Ayikwei Parkes led participants in developing poetry that engaged with the theme of our upcoming anthology, Filigree. The results were surprising and showed a wide variety of responses to the theme.

Feedback from the city was also really positive. We're sharing it here.

An exciting oppportunity to craft your poetry with Kadija Sesay, the award-winning co-editor of Filigree, a new anthology of contemporary Black British poetry. Under her sure hand you will create potential submissions for this new anthology, which will be published by Peepal Tree Press in Spring 2017.

In the latest issue of Miranda, the online journal of the English Department of the University of Toulouse-Jean Jaurès, Eric Doumerc examines the reggae aesthetics of Geoffey Philp's poetry. This article focuses on the influence of reggae on Geoffrey Philp's poetry through the concept of 'versioning' ('creative recycling'), a cultural practice which goes back to the roots of reggae.

We caught up with Karen Lord to discuss influences, speculative fiction and the Caribbean.

Who were your favourite authors growing up?

The 2016 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature longlist of nine books features four Peepal Tree Press titles! 

by Vladimir Lucien

I was recently invited to give the annual Independence Lecture in St. Lucia. I was honoured to deliver the talk, entitled "Playin' de Arts": Delinquency, Sovereignty and the St. Lucian Imagination. I am the youngest to have given the lecture, and -- I am told -- it was the first time that the lecture focussed on the arts.

Please note time change 6-8 pm!

Join us at historic Moray House in Georgetown for the official Guyanese launch of two exciting and important new books: Carew's memoir, Episodes in My Life, published by Peepal Tree Press, and a collection of poetry Return to Streets of Eternity, published by Smokestack Books.

Speakers will include Joy Gleason Carew, Al Creighton and Nigel Harris, and features a fascinating powerpoint presentation on Carew's life.

Caribbean Beat's wonderful Caribbean Bookshelf column by Shivanee Ramlochan (March/April 2016) features a new review of Sharon Millar's collection of short stories, The Whale House.

Here's a brief excerpt: