the87press was co-founded by South Asian poets Kashif Sharma-Patel and Azad Ashim Sharma with initial design input from architect Devin Maisuria and graphic design studio s-designs.

Established on principles of equity, (late) modernism, anti-colonialism, anti-racism, environmentalism, and social justice, the87press quickly became the London home for countercultural, hybrid, and experimental works of poetry, prose, and non-fiction from racialised, neurodivergent, queer, and working class authors.

the87press ascended to Arts Council England's National Portfolio in 2023 and added photographer Sopo Ramischwili and videographer Aisheshek Magauina to their core team alongside an advisory board full of publishing industry expects and pedagogical practitioners to support a new public facing direction for the press.

We are distributed by Inpress Books (UK and EU) and Wesleyan University Press (US and Canada) and print in small batches that combine environmentally conscious materials with bespoke design.

the87press is a Community Interest Company.

Core Team

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Azad Ashim Sharma
Director and Editor

Azad Ashim Sharma is the director of the87press and serves as poetry editor at Philosophy and Global Affairs and the CLR James Journal; he is also the commissioning editor of The Hythe Review. He is a PhD Candidate in English and Humanities at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of three poetry collections, most recently, Boiled Owls (Nightboat Books, 2024) which was shortlisted for the Jhalak Poetry Prize. His second collection Ergastulum: Vignettes of Lost Time (Broken Sleep Books, 2022) was the recipient of the Caribbean Philosophical Association’s Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Outstanding Book Award. In July 2025, Azad was inaugurated as the Poet Laureate of the Caribbean Philosophical Association. He lives in South London and is currently working on a novel and his fourth collection of poetry.

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Kashif Sharma-Patel
Company Secretary and Editor-in-Chief

Kashif Sharma-Patel is a London-based writer, poet, and editor at the87press. Kashif has written across music, literature, and art for The Poetry Project Newsletter, Verso Blog and Los Angeles Review of Books. Pamphlets include relief I willed it (Gong Farm, 2021), fragments on mutability (Earthbound Press, 2020), and Suburban Finesse, co-authored with Ashwani Sharma and Azad Ashim Sharma (Sad Press, 2021). Their debut collection is due in 2024 from Broken Sleep Books. They run a newsletter called culture hawker at kashifsp.substack.com.

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Aisheshek Magauina
Creative Manager

Aisheshek Magauina is a South London based comedian, writer, and core team member at the87press. At the87press she is a Creative Manager, with a focus on videography, video editing, and social media. 

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Sopo Ramischwili
Head of Publicity and Distribution

Sopo is a South London based photographer with a focus on culture, music, and fashion.
Her work at the87press covers book publicity and distribution but also involves marketing, social media management, event management, and various administrative tasks.

Board of Advisors

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Shura Davey Joseph-Gruner
Chair of the Board & Education and Accessibility Advisor

Shura Davey Joseph-Gruner is an artist, educator, and researcher from London. Shura's arts practice includes photography, digital media, and curation. Most recently, he contributed a digital artwork to 'Echoes of Solidarity' by the Afro Middle East Centre in South Africa in 2022. He also co-devised 'Neurodiversions', a series of immersive exhibitions established in 2019 that explore the production of culture and knowledge by neurodivergent people.
As an educator, Shura's specialisms are in accessible and critical pedagogies and he teaches across the London College of Communication's Design School and in the University of the Arts London's flagship Inclusive Practice Unit. Previously, he has also worked in 1:1 support for disabled students at Chelsea and Camberwell Colleges of Art, Central Saint Martins, and BRIT School.

Meera Ghanshamdas
Sales Advisor

Meera Ghanshamdas is the Co-Director of Round Table Books CIC, Sales and Marketing Manager at Tilted Axis Press, and a board member of the87press. She believes in the transformative power of literature and that writing from a global majority, queer, and/ or disability lens is necessary to deconstruct present power structures and embedded stereotypes.

She was born in Hong Kong, and lived in the Philippines, South Africa and India before moving to London at the age of twenty.

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Daniella Valz Gen
Curatorial and Pedagogical Advisor

Daniella Valz Gen, a poet, artist, and oracle, explores intersections among languages, cultures, and value systems with a focus on embodiment and ritual. With over fifteen years of international experience, their work has been featured in exhibitions, performances, and residencies worldwide. They authored Subversive Economies (PSS 2018) and contributed to various art journals. As the 2018 writer in residency for Serpentine’s ‘Writing the City, Language & Power’, and through projects like "(Be)longing" in 2019, they investigate migration and ecology through site-specific interventions. In October 2022, Valz Gen participated in the OrganizmoBloom residency in La Urbana, Colombia, witnessing a reclamation of traditions. Engaged with not/nowhere and the87press's advisory board, they promote inclusive publishing practices and alternative pedagogies.

Portrait by Antonio Escalante

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Danah Abdulla
Design and Financial Advisor

Danah Abdulla is a Palestinian-Canadian designer, educator and researcher interested in new narratives and practices in design that push the disciplinary boundaries and definitions of the discipline. She is Programme Director of Graphic Design at Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges of Arts (University of the Arts London). She has previously held positions at Brunel University London and London College of Communication (University of the Arts London). Danah obtained her Ph.D. in Design from Goldsmiths, University of London and is a founding member of the Decolonising Design platform. In 2010, she founded Kalimat Magazine, an independent, nonprofit publication about Arab thought and culture. Her research focuses on decolonising design, possibilities of design education, design culture(s), the politics of design, publishing, and social design. www.dabdulla.com

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Joe Luna
Editorial Advisor

Joe Luna’s books of poetry include Astroturf and Other Poems (2013), Ten Zones (2014), Air Hunger (2018), and Development Hell (2020). He lives and works in Brighton.

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Gurdeep Mattu
Trade and Distribution Advisor

Gurdeep Mattu is a publisher and the author of Sons and Fascination (Paperbooks, 2011) as well as several pamphlets. He works as Deputy Manager (Publishing Operations) at the House of Commons and has held senior roles at Bloomsbury, Continuum and Rowman and Littlefield. His poetic influences include T. S. Eliot, Walt Whitman, H.D. and William Carlos Williams. Gurdeep is working on his second novel, Sister Feelings Call and blogs at gurdeepmattu.wordpress.com

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Rhoni Blankenhorn
Creative Partnerships Advisor

Rhoni Blankenhorn is a Filipina American writer. Her manuscript, Rooms for the Dead and the Not Yet, won the Trio Award. A Sewanee Scholar, Saltonstall Fellow, and Tin House alum, her words can be found or are forthcoming in Narrative, AAWW, Couplet, Honey Literary, Hyperallergic, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA in poetry and translation at Columbia University, and works as an editor, educator, and creative strategist.