27th June 2025


 Feature


Getting to the root: Peepal Tree Press reflects on 40 years of publishing


Peepal Tree founder Jeremy Poynting and associate fiction editor Jacob Ross look back on 40 years of publishing Caribbean and Black British literature. Natasha Onwuemezi reports


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elebrating 40 years at the forefront of Caribbean and Black British literature, Leeds-based independ- ent publisher Peepal Tree Press has become a “honeypot” for writ-


ers and readers seeking stories that transcend the mainstream and preserve the cultural richness of the Caribbean and its diaspora. The press’ inaugural title, Backdam People


by the late Guyanese writer Rooplall Monar, captured the nuanced lives of sugar estate workers and exemplified the press’ commitment to literature that tells stories from within communities rather than simply about them. “Backdam People was really a do-it-yourself enterprise,” press founder Jeremy Poynting ( ) recalls. “An act of discovery about how books could be made – finding out how to sell them was a longer act of learning.” Thus began a 40-year (and counting) commitment to this act, which has seen the press grow from a


one-man band into a globally respected publish- ing house that now employs nine people and has more than 400 titles in print. Founded in 1985 and named after the ficus


religiosa tree brought to the Caribbean by Indian indentured labourers, Peepal Tree Press is deeply symbolic of cultural transplantation and resilience. The press has since nurtured and launched the careers of some of the most significant voices in Caribbean and Black British literature, from Bernardine Evaristo to Kwame Dawes, both of whom were first published by Peepal Tree in the 1990s. “Neither Bernardine nor Kwame had agents at this stage, but we know what’s good. Bernardine [has since] moved on, but she was gracious enough to say to me recently how often Peepal Tree Press got there first,” says Poynting. Dawes remains a core part of the press as


associate poetry editor, publishing more than 20 books with the press. “The fact that we


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