Indie Press Celebration

In Partnership with Irish Independent Press Alliance

Discover the voices and ideas shaping Ireland’s independent publishing scene. Join us for a celebration of some of the most exciting, innovative and adventurous small and independent publishers from across the island.

Then discover some of the writers at the heart of this vibrant scene, with readings from a selection of recently published indie titles. This showcase will feature readings of newly published work from authors Alaa Alqaisi (Skein Press), L.J. Sedgwick (Silver Locust Press), Mary Branley (Lepus Print), Ruth Ennis (Little Island Books), and Sam Furlong (Macha Press). MCed by award-winning author and activist Leon Diop.

Alaa Alqaisi is a Palestinian translator, writer, and researcher from Gaza. She holds an MA in Translation Studies and is a PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin. Her work focuses on literary translation, resistance and survival, appearing in publications including ArabLit, The Nation, Literary Hub, Berlin Review, The Key and Encounters in Translation.

Mary Branley is a poet, writer and musician living in County Sligo. She is the author of three collections of poetry, most recent is A Pinch of Snow in a Black Velvet Glove Lepus Print 2021. Her poetry has been included in such anthologies as Windharp: Poems of Ireland Since 1916, The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing and The Watchful Heart: A New Generation of Irish Poets: Poems and Essays. She is the creative coordinator of Siarsceál Festival, since 2023, supporting writing and publishing young people in Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon. She is an associate writer with Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership for twenty five years, on over fifty titles.

Ruth Ennis is a poet and verse-novelist from Kildare, Ireland. She has an MPhil in Children’s Literature from Trinity College Dublin and is usually found giving book recommendations or working with books in some capacity. She works as a Book Doctor with Children’s Books Ireland and reviews children’s books for Inis Magazine and Books Ireland. She is previously published in The Irish Writer’s Handbook (Books Ireland) and I Am The Wind: Irish Poems for Children Everywhere (Little Island). She has been awarded a Literature Bursary and an Agility Award from The Arts Council of Ireland. Shorelines, Ruth’s first book, is a YA verse novel retelling of the story of the little mermaid. It received a starred review in Kirkus, which noted: “The masterful writing truly stands out. … Grim yet powerfully and lovingly rendered.”

Sam Furlong‘s first collection of poetry, Crowd Work, was published by Macha Press in 2025. They are the Lead Editor of Frustrated Writers’ Group and their fiction has been published in The Stinging Fly and The Pig’s Back.  

Lindsay J. Sedgwick is a playwright, screenwriter and author who lectures in screenwriting at Maynooth University, Co. Kildare. Her books include novels, non-fiction, collections of flash-fiction, and children’s literature, and she created the award-winning animation series Punky. Awarded a Literature Bursary and Agility awards from the Arts Council, she has had residencies in Maynooth University, Cill Riallaig and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. Her stories recently featured in the Citron Review, the Journal of Expressive Writing, and Bó, the 2026 From The Well anthology. Her flash-fiction chapbook Glimpses Beneath was published by Silver Locust Press in June 2026; her tenth book, Mischievous Magical Maia Malone appeared in September from Janey Mac Books.

Leon Diop is an award-winning author from Tallaght, Dublin, born to an Irish mother and a Senegalese father. His first book, Black & Irish: Legends, Trailblazers and Everyday Heroes, co-authored with Briana Fitzsimons, was the first ever book about Black Irish identity and won Teen & Young Adult Book of the Year at the 2023 An Post Irish Book Awards. He followed it with Mixed Up: An Irish Boy’s Journey to Belonging, a memoir about growing up mixed race in Ireland. Leon studied Psychology at Maynooth University, where he served two terms as Students’ Union President. He founded Black and Irish in 2020. He hosts the Black and Irish podcast and is an alumnus of the Obama Foundation’s Europe Leaders programme. He writes to put stories on the shelf that he never got to read as a child.