Last week we had a great launch event for Closure: Contemporary Black British Short Stories in Portsmouth at Blackwell's with Lynne E.
Welcome to our new website! In addition to browsing our books (over 300 Caribbean and Black British titles!), you can see our latest titles, like the Closure anthology (listed as a best book of 2015 by the Guardian); find news of what’s happening at Peepal Tree and Inscribe; find out about our authors and lots more.
The much-anticipated Guyana Prize for Literature and Caribbean Awards have been announced, and we are delighted to report not one but three wins for Peepal Tree authors.
I was recently chosen for a month-long international writing residency in Hong Kong, which comprised readings, workshops, a trip to a college in mainland China, and the awarding of the title "Honorary Fellow in Writing" by Hong Kong Baptist University. Copies of "Sweetheart" were donated to the HKBU library, and some of my poems were translated into Chinese for the audience at the various events. I'm now back in Paris, helping with a project to translate the books of selected Jamaican writers into other languages.
Great turn out on Sunday for the Peepal Tree/Inscribe Readers and Writers Group workshop! No amount of rain stopped the creative energy in that room! There was a common thread of shared experiences, the urge to write stories and to be heard!! Round the table / Hearts opened, pens were put to paper' written work shared! rekindled emotions through family love, loss n birth, historical narratives, finding ones feet/place/voice, praise poems n elegies...
Not one, but three Peepal Tree Press titles have made the shortlist for this year's Guyana Prize!
Peepal Tree has two titles in the Best Book of Fiction list, Johnson's Dictionary by David Dabydeen and The Last Ship by Jan Lowe Shinebourne, and one in the Best book of Poetry, God's Spider by Cyril Dabydeen.
The winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony in Georgetown, Guyana on November 29th .
Hot on the heels of his Booker win, Vogue asked Marlon James What contemporary Caribbean authors should we be reading?
Peepal Press and Waterstones Piccadilly celebrate contemporary Black British writing with authors Pete Kalu, Jennifer Makumbi, Seni Seneviratne and Ayesha Siddiqi and the launch of "Closure: Contemporary Black British Short Stories". This evening's Salon, combining discussion and readings, is hosted by the editor of Closure, Jacob Ross.
Thanks to Inscribe and the London Short Story Festival Free Ticket Scheme I was able to attend what was an inspiring and encouraging event with short story writers from all over the world, reading their work, sharing their ideas and skills and debating the role of the short story in literary fiction today.
