We’ve published a lot of young creators here at Catalyst Press, but none as young as Kendra Powers, my awesome fourteen-year-old niece whose photo book, Bait the Toad, comes out this month. Featuring photos of Kendra’s pet toad Bait, whose sassy photo shoots became an overnight TikTok sensation, Bait the Toad is a side-splitting, quicky gift book that would make a great holiday gift for animal lovers of any age. I sat down with Kendra to chat about Bait, her new book, and her impressive crafting skills.
The Year in Review
This has been quite a year for us! You can read all about it in this wrap-up from Catalyst Press founder/publisher, Jessica Powers. And though we’re nearing the end of the year, there’s still time to support Catalyst and the books and authors you love!
All of our books are 30% when you buy from our website. Just use the code READING at check out. You can also support us through our Bookshop.org shop, which features our books plus our special #ReadingAfrica Week book lists featuring some of our favorites and books from the authors who graced the virtual stage for our #ReadingAfrica panels.
You can also support us with a one-time or recurring tax-deductible donation through Fractured Atlas, a 501(c)(3) arts organization that has offered us fiscal sponsorship.
We’re going to be hanging up our “Gone Reading” sign for the rest of the month, so things will be a little quiet while the Catalyst team gets some much-needed rest. We’ll see you in 2023!
This has been an astonishing year for Catalyst Press. We have now been publishing for six years! Our first books—Dark Traces by Martin Steyn and Sacrificed by Chanette Paul, both translations from Afrikaans into English—came out in November 2017. I’m honored to have started with those two stellar books, and honored by how far we’ve come.
This year marked milestone after milestone for us. From Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, whose critically-acclaimed and award-winning books we’re proud to publish, being named a Windham-Campbell Prize Winner, to finally getting a review in the New York Times Sunday Book section, to most of our children’s books being selected as Junior Library Guild honor books, to publishing this year’s Caine Prize winner, to starred reviews, to other honors, to other awards, to books being named to important lists… It’s been an incredible year. As I keep saying to people when they ask, “It’s all amazing…and now, if the press can just start making money!”
Continue reading “The Year in Review”This Week in Literary News: The Goodbye 2020 Edition
Welp. I think we can all agree, 2020 was quite the year. And for publishing it was a year of ups and downs. Sales tanked, then rose, then tanked, then rose. Book fairs went virtual, which we can all agree is not ideal, but hopefully can represent some hybrid opportunities in the future. People learned to attend, and like, virtual events with authors from all over the world. For us at Catalyst, this gave us the opportunity to think big when it came to the fourth annual #ReadingAfrica week, and we held two virtual events with participants in North America, Africa, and New Zealand.
In literary news for the end of the year, the Frankfurt Book Fair has announced it will be changing the way it does things in the future, with a stripped down version focusing more on rights sales but still with a public-facing event for book-lovers.
Book sales rose over 5% in the week before Christmas (yay for those of you who give books for Christmas!). Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: The Goodbye 2020 Edition”
This Week in Literary News: Week of October 18
The world of publishing went digital this year, as publishing events around the world were cancelled one by one. We all hope next year we will get to return to in-person events. Fall regional trade shows for booksellers were largely digital as well, as Publishers Weekly reports, with California booksellers especially grateful: “Beset by unprecedented fires and seven months of pandemic disruption, the virtual setup allowed California booksellers to participate without having to attempt near-impossible travel.” The online format is not without its perks however. Authors from around the world are able to participate in online events without the expense of travel and without the added stress of getting a visa to travel to the U.S. (not always granted.) For Catalyst, this may give us the opportunity to showcase our authors from the continent of Africa. Publishing will eventually return to its preferred in-person events but perhaps we’ll always retain an allowance, even an appreciation for, digital appearances by authors otherwise unable to appear in person.
Publishers Weekly also reports on an important collaboration between Freebird Books in NYC and Books Through Bars, which puts books in the hands of prisoners. The Covid-related lockdown in prisons around the country has made prisoners more “desperate” for books and demand has grown this past year. Graphic novels are especially popular, according to one of the volunteers: “We receive letters that tell us that the comics and graphic novels remind [inmates] of home and childhood. They also serve as an entry point to read other books and serve as part of the educational mission of Books Through Bars.” Hear hear for graphic novels all around! Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of October 18”
This Week in Literary News: Week of October 11
Bette Green, the author of one of my favorite young adult novels of all time, Summer of My German Soldier, has passed away. Summer of My German Soldier was based on the true story of a young Arkansas Jewish girl who helped a German Prisoner of War escape. The story was fully autobiographical, something Bette Greene took years to admit. Publishers Weekly quoted Beverly Horowitz, senior v-p and publisher of Delacorte Press, who edited Greene’s book The Drowning of Stephan Jones: “Bette Greene’s novels have a common thread: her characters showed empathy for those treated unjustly. During the years her books were published, so many decades ago, she depicted horrific bully behavior and readers felt how wrong those actions were. This was courageous writing especially at that time. When Bantam published her books in paperback editions, they were constantly censored, but were also embraced for classroom discussion that made kids think. I bet that many adults today remember the impact of reading Summer of My German Soldier in school. Bette’s hard-hitting exploration of prejudice still rings true.”
Kirkus Reviews interviewed one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter and memoirist Patrisse Khan-Cullors. In the interview, Khan-Cullors discusses her education and upbringing and the major influences on her thinking, as well as mental health, the deliberate inclusiveness of Black Lives Matter, ageism, and much more. Check it out! Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of October 11”
This Week in Literary News: Week of August 16
This week’s news is up a little later than usual, but filled with enough news to get you through your week ahead!
Jacana Media has issued its annual call for the Gerald Kraak Prize and Anthology, an anthology and prize on the topics of gender, human rights and sexuality, for writers and photographers across Africa. Submissions are open all year.
Speaking of Jacana, we’re pretty impressed with their “Don’t Shut Up” conversation, masterclass, and broadside series. If you haven’t checked these out, you should. You can catch up on old conversations at their Crowdcast website.
Publishers Weekly reports that even though many independent bookstores have closed permanently, some brave, entrepreneurial book-lovers have actually opened new bookstores during the pandemic! And they are succeeding! We love bookstores and are pleased to hear it. Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of August 16”
This Week in Literary News: Week of July 26
Hello everybody! We’re back for this week’s literary roundup
Not surprisingly, COVID-19 continues to affect the publishing industry. This week, Charlie’s Corner, a children’s bookstore in San Francisco closed, and Powell’s in Portland, Oregon closed its airport store. Both bookstores said they hoped to be return in some fashion but can’t predict the future. Barnes & Noble, however, is reopening stores. While overall, book sales have plummeted in 2020, booksellers in Italy, Romania, and France have reported a recent sales spike. According to Shelf Awareness, Black-owned bookstores are continuing to see record sales of key Black-authored titles. Our own amazing marketing manager, Ashawnta Jackson, wrote an piece a couple of weeks ago about the first Black-owned bookstore in the US, and the importance of these stores in Black communities.
In awards news:
Two African writers, Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe, This Mournable Body) and Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia, The Shadow King), were longlisted for the Booker Prize. We’re pleased. We’re longtime fans of Tsitsi Dangarembga, plus she has blurbed a forthcoming book from Catalyst Press, The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Ndlovu. [Ed Note: This post was written before we heard about Tsitsi’s arrest in Zimbabwe earlier today. Tsitsi was arrested along with several others at a protest both against government corruption and calling for the release investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono. We stand with Tsitsi and all fighting for justice and free expression]
The 2020 Caine Prize winner was also announced, with Nigerian-British writer Irenosen Okojie winning with her short story “Grace Jones,” about a Grace Jones impersonator with a dark secret. Visit the Caine Prize site to read Irenosen’s story, and those of the other shortlisted authors. It’s a great story to end the week.
In Catalyst News, Bridget Krone, who wrote Small Mercies, was interviewed by The Witness in South Africa. And SarahBelle Selig, our Office Manager based in Cape Town, interviewed our partner-in-crime at our South African distributor LAPA Uitgewers, Izak de Vries. Izak is a big friend and promoter of Catalyst’s titles in South Africa and we’re glad we were able to highlight him in this short video interview as part of our ongoing interview series, Conversations With…
This Week in Literary News, Week of June 14
In support of Black Lives Matter and Juneteenth, the hashtags #BlackPublishingPower and #BlackoutBestsellerList have been trending, encouraging people to buy books by Black authors and from Black-owned bookstores from June 14-June 20.
If you’re unsure which books to buy for your children or teens on the topic of anti-racism, Publishers Weekly released a list. The lengthy list encompasses both non-fiction and fiction titles, and spans picture books to novels. At Catalyst, we also published a smaller list, including adult books and organizations to support, should you wish.
The National Book Critics Circle’s board fell apart this past week over charges of internal racism. Almost 2/3 of the board members resigned, and the remaining board has committed itself to doing the hard work of changing its structure and approach to be specifically anti-racist.
In censorship news: This week, the highest-ranked leader in the land, our President, attempted to ban a book by John Bolton, the former national security adviser. The book purportedly offers an insider’s view on the President’s egregious behavior. Mr. Trump claims that the book reveals classified secrets and should not be released. Advocates for its release argue that if he successfully bans the book, it will undo decades of free speech precedent. Court hearings began June 19th.
In Catalyst Press news, we released Bitter Pill by Peter Church this week. Bitter Pill is the third installment in his Dark Web Trilogy, and continues our African Crime Reads series. Publishers Weekly has praised Bitter Pill, writing, “Church expertly juggles the multiple story lines all the way to the sordid, frantic maelstrom of the denouement.” You can read an excerpt from the novel at CrimeReads.
Last but not least, sales of audiobooks have been moving upward for the last several years and continue to rise. We have several of our books available as audiobooks, including Small Mercies by Bridget Krone, Crackerjack by Peter Church, The Wall by Max Annas and translated by Rachel Hildebrandt Reynolds, and in a couple of months, Unmaking Grace by Barbara Boswell.
From the Editor’s Desk…
A few months ago, we introduced a semi-regular feature in our newsletter called From the Editor’s Desk, in which our intrepid founder/editor/publisher/almost everything else-r, Jessica, gives our subscribers an update on all of the Catalyst Press goings-on. Since we’d like as many people as possible to stay up-to-date on our new and upcoming releases, we’ve decided to repost them here beginning with the installment that appeared in our July newsletter. These will be posted after they appear in the newsletter, so if you want to find out what’s going on before they make their way here, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter!
This summer has felt a bit like getting hit by a truck. (This actually happened to me 13 years ago, so it’s not entirely a specious comment.) My husband took the position of Dean of Language Arts at the college where I teach, which meant my 10 year teaching career at that particular college was now over. (The college has certain rules against professors sleeping with the dean.) (And no, it didn’t matter that I had taught there for 10 years prior to his becoming a dean.) (Do I sound bitter? It’s OK. I’ll miss teaching but I love my job at Catalyst.) (Aaannnd….that’s probably enough parentheses….) This led to our putting our house up for sale. We got it ready in a month and sold it in one day, all of which has left us exhausted. We are now moving and will be doing the apartment thing for awhile. It’s a whole new life in foggy California, right beside the ocean, right along the San Andreas fault.
Notes from the 2019 ALA Conference
I had a great time at ALA2019 in Washington D.C.
Catalyst Press shared booth space at the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative booth with several other publishers who focus on international and translated literature. GLLI was founded by Rachel Hildebrandt Reynolds, who is also the talented translator of our recent release The Wall by Max Annas. Business was booming at the GLLI booth, with a lot of interest in publications from Africa. I brought 60 Advance Review Copies, which were snatched up before noon on Saturday, the first full day. We trust that they got into the hands of librarians who care and who will promote African writers and books set in Africa. Continue reading “Notes from the 2019 ALA Conference”