Tickets for talks and panels are only available to Indie Press Fair ticket holders. BOOK HERE

You'll be emailed an access code to book them for free. 

Nell Osborne (Ghost Driver) in conversation with Neil Griffiths

Malory walks home after an ordinarily gruelling night out, having escaped the company of her associates. Something ripples in the darkness. The shape of a figure. So begins a chain of events with the texture of dream plasma. A story of persecution mania. Professional ignominy. A sudden disappearance. The terror of seeing oneself too clearly...

Part horror story, part tragicomic nightmare, Ghost Driver is a slim shudder of a novel about a woman who has taken every wrong turn available to her.

Ghost Driver (MOIST, 2025) is the joint winner of the 2026 Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize. Join Nell Osborne and Neil Griffiths for a conversation about this 'shape-shifting gem' of a novel (judge Stu Hennigan).

Nell Osborne is a poet, novelist and researcher of experimental women’s writing. From 2018–20, she co-ran the Manchester-based reading series No Matter, commissioning new work from writers including Anne Boyer and Lisa Robertson. She completed her doctoral thesis at the University of Manchester on experimental women writers, including Ann Quin and Kathy Acker, and co-edited Gestures: a body of work, a cross-disciplinary anthology on gesture and feminist practice (2025). Her poetry pamphlet Thank You For Everything was published by Monitor Books in 2024, and another pamphlet, Seances Near Me, is forthcoming from Spite Press in 2027. Her debut novel, Ghost Driver (Moist Books, 2025), jointly won the Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize in 2026; Daisy LaFarge described it as “addictively morbid, comic and discomfortingly familiar”. She is currently working on her next novel.

Neil Griffiths is a novelist, publisher and founder of the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses. His first novel, Betrayal in Naples, won the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award; Saving Caravaggio was shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel Award (2007). His third novel As a God Might Be was published by Dodo Ink. His memoir The Wrong Son was published this year to critical acclaim.

The Indie Press Fair is a one-day celebration of independent publishing, hosted by Calico Projects at Manor House Library.

Independent presses will be exhibiting on the day, with books and other publications available to buy directly from them.

Running alongside the fair are four free talks and panels featuring authors, editors and publishers discussing their work and the world of small press publishing. These are bookable separately using an access code sent to Entry Ticket holders by email, so buy your ticket early to guarantee a place.

Entry includes a free drink on arrival (before 2:15pm) and buffet food during the day. A pay bar will be on site.

Talks and Panels

Talks and panels are free, but only bookable with an access code. You'll be emailed the code after buying an Entry Ticket, then use it to reserve your place at each session, spaces are limited.

Panel: Translation and Creative Practice, chaired by Erica Hesketh
1:45 PM–2:30 PM
Poet and translator Erica Hesketh leads a conversation on the craft of literary translation and its relationship to creative practice.

Koushik Banerjea (Animal Nightlife) in conversation with Andi Thomas
2:50 PM–3:35 PM
Koushik Banerjea talks about Animal Nightlife, a kaleidoscopic novel of hybrid human-animal lives navigating a dangerous, divided Britain.

Nell Osborne (Ghost Driver) in conversation with Neil Griffiths
3:50 PM–4:35 PM
Poet and novelist Nell Osborne discusses Ghost Driver, joint winner of the 2026 Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize, a shape-shifting tale of paranoia, disappearance and self-recognition.

Panel: Success in Small Press Publishing, chaired by Neil Griffiths
5:30 PM–6:30 PM
Neil Griffiths chairs a panel of independent publishers on the experience of small press publishing and what success looks like in the industry.