12 December 2025

The Future of Independent Presses

In collaboration with Wasafiri magazine, UK Small Press Futures will host an afternoon of panels dedicated to publicity and the future of independents. This is the first event of a year-long series that addresses the most pressing issues for small publishers, as we work towards reimagining and creating a sustainable literary ecosystem.

Small Press Futures is a collective of UK independent publishers. This collective emerged out of an open letter published in The Bookseller in October 2025.

When: Wednesday, 21 January, 2 – 6pm GMT
Where: BLOC Cinema, Queen Mary University of London
Tickets: £15 (Concessions available)

Purchase your tickets here.

Full Programme

Publicity and Marketing Futures: Instagram, Tik Tok, and the Labour of PR
2.15 – 3.15pm GMT

How can small presses use publicity and marketing to make their books visible to readers? Panelists Trà My Hickin (Tilted Axis Press, Translator Mag), Liam Konemann (Cipher, Silver Press), and Hope Ndaba (Creative Communications Specialist) share insight and ideas to help bolster our presence online and in print. This panel will be chaired by Cassie Lawrence (Wasafiri).

Audio Futures: Podcasts, Audiobooks, and Radio 
3.30 – 4.30pm GMT

Pema Monaghan (Penguin), Kate Bland (Spiracle), Mair Bosworth (BBC), and Octavia Bright (Literary Friction) discuss how audio books, radio, and podcasts can support the future of small press publishing. This panel will be chaired by Pema Monaghan.

Review Futures: Print Media and Small Press Publishing
4.45 – 5.45pm GMT

With review pages shrinking and the media struggling to make space for small press books, what does the future of the literary press look like? Join Michael Caines (TLS), Sana Goyal (Wasafiri), Cal Revely-Calder (The Telegraph), and writer Suyin Haynes as they discuss how print media and literary editors can help small press titles break out.

Kate Bland is Founder Director of Spiracle Audiobooks. She has worked in radio and audio production, press, and museum development.

Mair Bosworth is a Bristol-based BBC radio and podcast producer, making books programmes, music documentaries, and poetry features. For Radio 4, she adapts novels for ‘Book at Bedtime’ and commissions original short stories and fiction serials. She has collaborated with authors like Max Porter, Ada Limón, Liz Berry, Ilya Kaminsky, Vanessa Kisuule, Sophie Mackintosh, and Caleb Femi; and has adapted for radio novels by Elena Ferrante, Kazuo Ishiguro, James Baldwin, Philip Roth, Samantha Harvey, Jon Fosse, and many more. She was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020.

Octavia Bright is a writer, presenter, and broadcaster. Her memoir, This Ragged Grace (Canongate, 2023) was a Waterstones Best Book of 2023: Biography. She co-hosted Literary Friction, the literary podcast and NTS Radio show, with Carrie Plitt, for over a decade. Her writing has been published in many places including The Guardian, The White Review, Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, Wasafiri, Stylist, and The Sunday Times.

Michael Caines has worked for the Times Literary Supplement for a quarter of a century, and co-founded the Brixton Review of Books, a free quarterly with a focus on indie presses, in 2018. He is writing a book about Brigid Brophy, and co-editing, with Boris Dralyuk, the selected poems of the American poet Henri Coulette, to be published by Carcanet in 2026.

Sana Goyal is the Editor and Publishing Director of Wasafiri. She has a PhD in literary prizes from SOAS, University of London, and has varied experience chairing book events and working with small arts organisations. Her reviews have appeared in The Guardian, Financial Times, Times Literary Supplement, Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She was a judge for the 2025 International Booker Prize.

Suyin Haynes is a London-based, Malaysian British freelance journalist and educator interested in storytelling at the intersections of identity, culture, and underrepresented communities. She is a Lecturer in Journalism at City St George's, University of London, and her writing has featured in The New York Times, Al Jazeera, Jacobin, and more. She is currently working towards an MA in Southeast Asian Studies at SOAS. 

Trà My Hickin works at the intersection of arts and community wellbeing through publishing, editorial, archives, and organising. She uses storytelling and narrative approaches to support social justice, especially with Vietnamese and ESEA migrant communities. She is editor of Translator, a magazine translating journalism, and works with Tilted Axis Press, a radical international literary press. She co-directs the An Việt Archives, a British Vietnamese community archive exploring alternative approaches to archiving and memory work, and contributes to various human rights projects, including Minorities in Peace and Security.

Liam Konemann is a writer and publishing professional based in London. He is Publishing Executive at Cipher Press, Sales and Marketing Executive at Silver Press and Spiral House, and a freelance publicist working with clients including Peninsula Press. He is the author of two books published by 404 Ink.

Cassie Lawrence is a journalist and content editor. She is currently Digital Coordinator at Wasafiri magazine and recently completed a Masters in Cultural Studies at SOAS. She has worked for various literary organisations with a global outlook, including Saqi Books and Asia House. Alongside her work, Cassie has volunteered for free-speech advocates English PEN and translated literature platform, Asymptote Journal.

Pema Monaghan is a writer, audio producer, and presenter. Born in Walyalup, Western Australia, she now lives in London, where she produces and co-hosts the Yoto Daily podcast, as well as The Download — both podcasts made for children. Before coming to audio, Pema worked as a long-term bookseller and indie publisher, working, amongst others, at Burley Fisher, The Emma Press, Pages Cheshire Street, The Second Shelf, and with Three of Cups press. Pema’s own small press was Takeaway Press. Pema writes fiction and poetry, and loves to knit.

Hope Ndaba is a freelance communications specialist working in publishing, crafting publicity and marketing campaigns. They have previously worked for publishers such as Bonnier Books, Picador, Vintage, and Profile Books as well as the Books PR agency FMcM. Outside of their day to-day, they serve on the And Other Stories advisory board of trustees and also curate a south London salon, South by Words.

Cal Revely-Calder is literary editor of The Telegraph. He has contributed to the New Yorker, London Review of Books, and The White Review, among others, and has won awards for art and literary criticism from The Guardian and Frieze. His book on convenience culture is forthcoming with Verso.