Category: About

Q&A with Matt & Jessica Powers

In addition to being great friends, brother and sister pair Matt and Jessica are also co-authors of the YA book Broken Circle (Akashic Books) and now, they’re co-workers here at Catalyst HQ. There’s no sibling rivalry here! Matt, who in in his downtime from being a parent and author, will also be heading up the newest Catalyst imprint—Powers Squared! In another life, Matt studied Oncology, eventually earning his PhD in Oncological Studies from the University of Utah. It was during his studies that he realized that science could be, and should be, for all of us. Science can dazzle us, excite us, captivate us, but only when it’s done in engaging ways. We’ll be bringing those kinds of engaging science stories to readers everywhere through the Powers Squared imprint—beginning with the first release Cat Among the Pigeons written by David Muirhead and featuring illustrations by Patricia de Villiers. Welcome to the team, Matt!

Matt and Jessica found some time between parenting, writing, and publishing to have a little chat about life as a Powers kid, reading and writing, and what you can expect from Powers Squared in the coming years. Learn more about the Powers Squared mission and Cat Among the Pigeons here.

This Q&A first appeared in our newsletter. If you want to see more great Q&As like this, plus be the first-to-know about sales, events, and lots of fun extras, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter!

Continue reading “Q&A with Matt & Jessica Powers”

Introducing Powers Squared

Today is Pi Day, an annual celebration of the mathematical constant pi (π). Since the day is kind of a science-y one, it is a perfect time to introduce you all to the newest member of the Catalyst Press family— our new imprint Powers Squared. Why today? Thanks for asking! Because Powers Squared will be the home for books that explore our world with a scientific eye. So everything from the natural sciences, to physics, to astronomy, and even science-fiction and speculative fiction—all with a global eye—will be featured on this new imprint.

Helmed by Matthew Powers, co-author of the YA novel Broken Circle (Akashic Books) along with his sister and Catalyst founder Jessica Powers, Powers Squared is the perfect place to find a book to explore science and nature. The first book we’ll be publishing is Cat Among the Pigeons, a smart and funny look at the wild world of South Africa’s animal life, by David Muirhead, set for release in January 2020. Stay tuned for more info on the imprint, and its future releases!

Celebrating a Year of Catalyst Press

A sampling of the Catalyst catalog (plus Jessica’s own YA novels)

Around 50 people attended Catalyst’s first anniversary party at Towne Center Books in Pleasanton, California, a few miles away from Catalyst’s Livermore headquarters. Three musicians from Cheza Nami came to make music, representing Africa from the west coast to the east coast. We sang and danced, drank wine and ate cheese and cake, and talked books. I spoke briefly for about 15 minutes, talking about why I started Catalyst and fielding questions from the audience. The most embarrassing, asked by my 8-year-old son, was the following: Which book is your favorite? Since one of my authors, Caroline Kurtz, was in the audience, I didn’t feel like I could really answer that! Instead, I talked about two books that I have published which I feel are really important books to be out in the world: The Lion’s Binding Oath and Other Stories by Ahmed Ismail Yusuf and Shaka Rising: Legend of the Warrior Prince. Continue reading “Celebrating a Year of Catalyst Press”

From the Editor’s Desk: 2018 Reflections

This comes from our newsletter series, From the Editor’s Desk, where Catalyst founder/publisher, Jessica, gives you a peek behind the Catalyst curtain. Subscribe to our newsletter to get more looks inside Catalyst HQ, author Q&As, giveaways, and more!

I have to tell you the truth, I’m feeling kind of tired. But it’s a good tired! 2018 was a whirlwind year (following 2017, its own kind of whirlwind) and included many firsts. For this Editor‘s Desk column, I thought I’d tell you what some of those firsts were–all of them worthy of celebration. And hopefully I’ll find some time to do just that this month–celebrate all the firsts of 2018. Continue reading “From the Editor’s Desk: 2018 Reflections”

Q&A with Jive Media Africa

Our monthly newsletter is full of good stuff. We’ve got author news, events, and special sales. We have a good time there. Part of that good time is also being able to publish Q&As with our authors and partners that we then get to share with you. We’ve been republishing these Q&As here at our blog (you can read them here), but if you want to be among the first to read them, you can subscribe to our newsletter here!

The Q&A we’re sharing this time is with our South African partners, Jive Media Africa. We’ve teamed up with them to create our imprint Story Press Africa. Story Press Africa’s mission is to bring African histories and figures to life in the pages of our African Graphic Novel Series. The first installment in the series was Shaka Rising, and we’re so excited to bring more stories like this to readers everywhere. Continue reading “Q&A with Jive Media Africa”

Do You Have a Story to Tell?

Story Press Africa, our collaborative imprint with South African media company Jive Media Africa, is looking for submissions from artists and illustrators who want to tell the stories and histories of Africa as part of our African Graphic Novel Series.

The first installment in the series, Shaka Rising—a graphic novel for young readers—told the story of a young Zulu leader’s rise to power against the backdrop of one of southern Africa’s most turbulent times. We want to continue bringing these stories to the page and to readers everywhere. Please read our submission guidelines and get in touch if you have a proposal. We look forward to hearing from you!

Continue reading “Do You Have a Story to Tell?”

Check Your Mailbox! Shaka’s on the Way!

Pretty soon, a whole bunch of you will be walking to your mailboxes, and there, tucked between a magazine, grocery store flyers, an electric bill, and all of the other assorted things that show up in the mail these days, will be something we’re super proud of—a copy of Shaka Rising. Through your support and generosity, we were able to fund our Kickstarter project and get started on the next installment of our African Graphic Novel Series. It’s all because of you.

When we joined forces with the good folks at Jive Media Africa to form the imprint Story Press Africa, it was because we wanted to share all the wonder, the excitement, and the richness of African history and knowledge. Historical figures like Shaka have a lot to tell us about, not just African history, but about our world, and we’re thrilled to share it with you.

A lot of people made this happen. A lot of people cared about sharing Shaka’s story with their kids, their libraries, and their communities and that’s why we made our goal—people like you supported this brand new thing we’ve started. Shaka Rising is the first in a long, long line of African Graphic Novel from Story Press Africa. We’re just getting started and we’re so happy to have you along for the ride.

Thanks for believing in us and the work we’re doing! If you like Shaka Rising, be sure to spread the word! Leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, your website, or in some sort of elaborate semaphore (if you pick semaphore, please send a video. We’d love to see that). Let your schools, libraries, and community groups know that you got your hands on an awesome graphic novel that’s teaching African history in a fun and accessible way, and that they should get in on it, too. Basically, tell everyone you know that Shaka Rising is here and that because of you, a second installment is on the way.

A big THANK YOU to all of you who donated to our campaign, and be sure to keep watching to see what’s next for us! An especially huge thanks to our partners at Jive Media Africa!

Many thanks to our donors:

Einar Petersen
Mary Fountaine
Emily Dietrick
Ntsike
Anonymous
Erin Subramanian
Jamil Burns
Paul Glasser
Ray “Raytoons.Net” Mullikin
Noel Mills
Chandra Orrill
Shean, Semeicha and Sapphira Mohammed
Robert L Vaughn
Tinsley
Lisa Jensen
In honor of Michael Kromberg
Mary Puthoff
Tessa Moon Leiseth
Peter LaPrade
The Spitzers
Rosie Tullis-Thompson
The Briar Patch
Nate Gillespie
Maureen Babb
Rico Schacherl
The Bells
Mark Gunter
Rachel
Matt Powers
Kathy Shepler
Alberta Jackson
Catherine Ndungu-Case
Assembly of Literatures for Adolescents of NCTE
Derek W.
Matty Sankauskas
Anonymous
Dennis and Becky
Helen Musselman
Edi
Glynnis Belchers
Justin
Kathleen Shannon
Sarah
Scott
Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and Platinum Studios

 

Notes from NCTE

NCTE was held in St. Louis this year. The view wasn’t so bad.

November was a busy month here at Catalyst/Story Press Africa HQ. Our authors were shining at other blogs and getting stellar reviews for their great work. Meanwhile, our publisher, editor,  and general get-things-done-er, Jessica has been pretty busy, too. She’s been donning her cloak (she switched the cape out for it) at readings and conferences across the country in promotion for her new book, Broken Circle (Akashic Books), with (of course) a healthy dose of Catalyst thrown in.

The sibling duo at this year’s NCTE conference.

 

Most recently, Jessica and her co-author (her brother Matt) were at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference and the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) in St. Louis. Jessica presented on books and social justice at NCTE, and the duo were also being awesome on a panel at ALAN. And two of our books, We Kiss Them With Rain and Shaka Rising were presented in front of nearly 600 educators at ALAN.

And you know what? You know why we do this thing we do? Why we play with words, arranging and rearranging them, turning them over, just to make sure that for a minute, for a page, for a paragraph, for a sentence someone gets to find themselves in book? I could tell you, but I think Matt said it way better than I could on the panel.

In recounting his struggles with reading as a child and how much teachers, storytellers, and people who love literature can make a difference in helping a kid see themselves in words, Matt (beautifully) said:

“In your classrooms, you are a family. You can help give kids who need it an identity, a story of themselves, that helps them make it.”

That’s why we do it. Every reader was that kid once, and maybe still is. Each of our books, from the darkest crime novel to an educational graphic novel, is about reaching a reader.

One thing I’ve always loved is hearing one of our authors, Martin Steyn (Dark Traces) talk about what got him into writing. It was reading Stephen King and losing himself in that world that made want to create that feeling for someone else. It’s unbearably cool that we get to do that here, that we get to share stories and let storytellers do their thing.

Story Press Africa in the Publisher Spotlight Booth at NCTE.

Submission Policy

Our reading period is from July 1-August 31. We will not be able to respond to submissions sent before or after this period.

We’re pleased to announce that we’re reopening our submissions! As always, we’re looking for innovative, thoughtful writing that engages readers and reveals the world from different perspectives and different understandings. Our primary focus is currently on African writers and/or writers with a deep, long-standing connection to the continent.

We are willing to consider exceptions in certain cases but we seek to publish African and African Diasporan points of view, realities, and understandings of the world we live in. A key word for us is “authentic”—but diversity is also key as there is no singular African culture, belief system, or experience.

On the adult side, we publish crime/mystery, thrillers, literary fiction, non-fiction, memoir, children’s and young adult novels. We are also looking to expand our romance offerings. If you believe you have a manuscript that we would be interested in, please send a short description, a bio, and approximately 10 pages to info [at] catalystpress.org. For those submitting illustrated work, please also submit sample artwork or a link to your portfolio. We can’t promise a short response time but will do our best to respond within two months.

Who We Are

Jessica Powers. Publisher, Editor, Marketing Guru, and General Girl Friday. She is both the Grand Master and the Padawan, both the mistress and the maid. In her other life, Jessica is a young adult author of multiple books. She writes under the name J.L. Powers and her author websites include www.jlpowers.net and www.powerssquared.com. She also works as a publicist for Cinco Puntos Press (www.cincopuntos.com). You can reach her at jlpowers [at] catalystpress [dot] org.

 

Ashawnta Jackson lives in Brooklyn, NY. She’s a reader, writer, and editor. If you can’t find her, she’s probably at the record store hoarding all the new wave. She is the Marketing Manager for Catalyst Press and can be reached at publicity [at] catalystpress [dot] org.

 

 

Tsepo Dube. Social Media and Publicity Specialist. Tsepo lives in greater Johannesburg, South Africa, where he and his family own and run a community newspaper and a business related publication.

 

 

 

Jill Bell. Copy-editor and Production Manager. Jill grew up in the Indianapolis, IN area and received her education (B.A. English Lit.) from Purdue University and the University of Texas at El Paso after she relocated to Texas in the year 2000.

In 2016, she landed an internship at El Paso’s Cinco Puntos Press where she discovered her love of copy-editing. She’s now thrilled to be working as a copy-editor and production manager for Catalyst Press!

 

SarahBelle Selig is Catalyst Press’ South African office head and publicist. From reading submissions and writing metadata to liaising with booksellers and literary media, she pops in at various parts of the Catalyst publishing process and is increasingly undecided about which “hat” is her favorite. A North Carolina native, SarahBelle moved to South Africa in 2019, recently wrapped up her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Cape Town, and writes occasionally for World Literature Today.

 

Please contact us by email at info [at] catalystpress [dot] org or by phone at 925-315-5970.