The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

We really need a thread for the small press that's just won the Costa Novel of the Year award and had two books longlisted for the Folio Prize

https://www.peepaltreepress.com/about-us

Peepal Tree aims to bring you the very best of international writing from the Caribbean, its diasporas and the UK. Our goal is always to publish books that make a difference, and though we always want to achieve the best possible sales, we're most concerned with whether a book will still be alive in the future.

Peepal Tree is a wholly independent company, founded in 1985, and now publishing around 20 books a year. We have published over 300 titles, and are committed to keeping most of them in print. The list features new writers and established voices. In 2009 we launched the Caribbean Modern Classics Series, which restores to print essential books from the past with new introductions.

Our focus is on what George Lamming calls the Caribbean nation, wherever it is in the world, though we are also concerned with Black British writing of different heritages. We publish fiction, poetry and a range of academic and non-fiction titles. Our goal is to publish books that make a difference, and though we always want to achieve the best possible sales, we’re most concerned with whether a book will still be alive in the future.

We are based in Leeds in Yorkshire, part of an important independent publishing sector outside London.

I was asked on another thread for recommendations - in addition to Mermaid of Black Conch. I'll posted here as well as easier to find

Robert recommended Where There Are Monsters which I'd second

The Geez was also on the Rathbones Folio list alongside Mermaid - it's poetry and I haven't read it

Kitch: A Fictional Biography of a Calypso Icon from a previous RoC list was very good and he had a subsequent novel The Frequency of Magic (I haven't read but looks interesting)

A Little Dust on the Eyes is also an author whose book was on the 2019 RoC

I really liked Tracing Ja Ja which also won the 2018 Casa de la Américas Literary Award in the Category of Anglophone Caribbean Literature - although the only review on GR is by me

Really nice Guardian piece on the press - on their 40th anniversary.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025...