Category: Awards | CatalystPress

The Writer’s Notebook: Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

As many of you know, Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu won a Windham-Campbell award in 2022. It has been a whirlwind here ever since, so we can only imagine what it’s like for Siphiwe! We’re a tiny press with a tiny staff, but we have such an enormous love for our authors and their books, and the Windham-Campbell Prize recognizing one of those authors feels amazing. As part of her award tour, Siphiwe has been featured in the Yale Review‘s special Windham-Campbell issue and, most recently, just wrote a beautiful essay for the Windham-Campbell “Writer’s Notebook” series.

We couldn’t be prouder to publish Siphiwe’s gorgeous and innovative writing. Her award-winning novels The Theory of Flight and The History of Man are both out now, with the final book in her City of Kings Trilogy, The Quality of Mercy, out this fall. Below is an excerpt of her Writer’s Notebook piece where she discusses the inspiration for The Quality of Mercy.

I will always say this because it is true—my grandmother was a phenomenal storyteller. She could make any story come into Technicolor life: an oral fable passed down through the generations, an unexpectedly spectacular thing that one of her students had done, a past event that she retrieved from the vast treasure trove that was her memory. A few years before she died in 2014, she told me a story about a man who instantly fell so in love with a woman that he followed her all the way to her village where he was immediately set the task of solving a mystery in order to win her hand in marriage. This story was the genesis of what would become my third novel, The Quality of Mercy.

Read the full essay here

The Spark: The “Have I Run Out of Cute Titles?” Edition

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Huge congratulations to Futhi Ntshingila and her new novel They Got To You Too, awarded the Sharjah International Book Fair Prize 2022 this week! Futhi is the author of the novel We Kiss Them With Rain, which we published in 2018 and you can check out below in the “From the Backlist” section. We’re so proud of you, Futhi!

We’re gearing up for #ReadingAfrica 2022, this year from Sunday December 4^th through Saturday December 10^th! All week long, make sure to share your favorite African reads and tell us why you’re #ReadingAfrica by sharing the #ReadingAfrica and #ReadingAfricaWeek hashtags on all of your social media platforms. And as part of the celebration, we’re lining up an amazing virtual events program and we’ll be announcing the events over our socials in the next two weeks, so make sure to give us a follow on our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages. Read more about #ReadingAfrica here, and a very special shoutout to Squid Mag for featuring #ReadingAfrica this week! Continue reading “The Spark: The “Have I Run Out of Cute Titles?” Edition”

The Spark: The Week of Big News Edition

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Happy pub week to The Cedarville Shop and the Wheelbarrow Swap! This is the second middle-grade novel from South African author Bridget Krone that we’ve had the privilege to publish (we published Small Mercies in 2020) and we’re so excited to share it with you. Kirkus Reviews called it “a compelling look at friendship and community uplift under harsh circumstances.” Congrats, Bridget!

We’re so thrilled to have been named one of five finalists for the Amber Grant for Women’s September grant! This amazing organization gives $10,000 to a women-owned small business every single month, and we’re very grateful for their recognition and support. [Ed note: We, unfortunately, weren’t awarded the Amber grant, but we are so proud to be part of this amazing group of women entrepreneurs! And we extend our huge congratulations to grantee Brandy Witherow, owner of Lemon Island Seafood, and all of the Amber Grant finalists!]

Two authors from Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa, Innocent Chizaram Ilo and Caine Prize winner Idza Luhumyo, are featured in this great article from Afrocritik highlighting “15 emerging and gifted voices amplifying African literature”. Disruption, which we co-published last year with the South African non-profit Short Story Day Africa, features stories from Innocent, Idza, and 19 other emerging authors from Africa.

And last up, don’t miss the virtual awards ceremony for this year’s Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards, happening Thursday October 27^th at 6pm EST. We’re so thrilled that Sifiso Mzobe and his debut novel Young Blood were selected as a finalist for this year’s award. We’re rooting for you, Sifiso!

Continue reading “The Spark: The Week of Big News Edition”

The Spark: The Graphic Novel Edition

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We are so excited to announce the launch of our newest series, Panel & Page! The new series is where we’ll be publishing most of our upcoming graphic novels, and we’re so excited to use this announcement to officially tell you about all of the amazing graphic novels you can expect in 2023. You can find out more about Pearl of the Sea and KARIBA—our two upcoming releases from South Africa—and how they’re connected to the award-winning animation studio Triggerfish in this awesome mention here. And speaking of graphic novels, many thanks to World Kit Lit’s Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp for highlighting Shaka Rising—our very first graphic novel release— as one of her top 12 global children’s books for history lovers this week on Words Without Borders!

Lots of events on the way! Caroline Kurtz, author of the award-winning memoir A Road Called Down on Both Sides and the recently-released Today is Tomorrow, visits Chapters Books in Newberg, OR on October 7^th as part of the city’s First Friday Artwalk. Also be sure to mark your calendars for Thursday October 27^th at 6pm EST for the virtual 2022 Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards ceremony, where Young Blood author Sifiso Mzobe is being honored alongside the other shortlisted authors! And last up, we’re so excited that four Catalyst authors will be taking part in this amazing South African book tour hosted by Atlas Book Club founder Bunmi Emenanjo, where she’ll be bringing overseas visitors to South Africa to explore the country’s incredible beauty and wonderfully diverse literary scene.

Continue reading “The Spark: The Graphic Novel Edition”

The Spark: The “Wow, September is a big month” Edition

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September is both #NationalTranslationMonth and #WorldKidLitMonth, and to celebrate both at once, here’s an amazing reading of his YA novel Halley’s Comet by author and translator Hannes Barnard, as part of Translators Aloud’s month long celebration.

Caroline Kurtz, author of the memoirs A Road Called Down on Both Sides and recently released Today is Tomorrow, is giving a reading at Wordfest in Longview, Washington this coming Tuesday at 6pm PST, and Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, Windham Campbell Prize winning author of The Theory of Flight and The History of Man, got a nice mention in Lizzy Attree’s LA Times review of Glory, NoViolet Bulawayo’s Booker Prize shortlisted novel.

And finally, ICYMI, check out the announcement for Panel & Page, our newly launched graphic novel series which kicks off with the 2023 releases of Pearl of the Sea and KARIBA. Pre-orders available now

Continue reading “The Spark: The “Wow, September is a big month” Edition”

The Spark: The “Way to Go, Sifiso!” Edition

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Late last week, we received the amazing news that Young Blood, Sifiso Mzobe’s crime novel set in Durban’s Umlazi township, was shortlisted for the 2022 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award! The winner will be announced on October 27^th, but we’re so thrilled to see Sifiso on this incredible list of finalists. Read more about the book at the end of this post!

Huge congrats to Bridget Krone, the award-winning author of Small Mercies, for the launch of her newest middle grade novel, The Cedarville Shop and the Wheelbarrow Swap! To celebrate her South African pub date last week (don’t worry, USA readers! The book is available in North America and worldwide in just a few weeks), Top Class Books in Hilton, South Africa hosted a marvelous launch with almost 100 attendees. Bridget will spend the next few weeks touring schools in Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg, as well as attending book signings and readings.

Also this week, Today is Tomorrow author Caroline Kurtz was honored alongside her sister Jane and the Reverend Bill Chadwick during a virtual event hosted by the Presbyterian Writers Guild. Caroline’s first memoir, The Road Called Down on Both Sides: Growing Up in Ethiopia and America was awarded the Presbyterian Writers Guild’s Best First Book Award. You can read more about the event, and Caroline’s response to the award, here

And finally, The History of Man author Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu and Bom Boy author Yewande Omotoso will both be taking part as panelists at the 2022 Open Book Festival in Cape Town, September 2-4!

Continue reading “The Spark: The “Way to Go, Sifiso!” Edition”

The Spark: The Caine Prize Edition

We’re dedicating this edition of The Spark to the newest Caine Prize winner, Idza Luhumyo. Idza’s story, “Five Years Next Sunday,” was named the winner of this year’s Caine Prize for African Writing. The award is given to “a short story by an African writer published in English […] The winner is awarded a cash prize of £10,000, and the other four shortlisted writers will receive £500 each.”

We are proud to have published Idza’s award-winning story in our release, Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa, co-published with Short Story Day Africa.

Congratulations to Idza, and all of the shortlisted authors!

Another Honor for Small Mercies

Congratulations to author Bridget Krone and illustrator Karen Vermeulen! The Skipping Stones Awards honor books that “promote an understanding of cultures, cultivate cooperation and/or encourage a deeper awareness of nature, ecology, and diversity.” The Skipping Stones award is yet another wonderful honor for this thoughtful and heartwarming middle-grade novel. The book has also been named a Best Middle-Grade Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews and an Outstanding International Books by the United States Board on Books for Young People. We’re so proud to publish Small Mercies.

Many thanks to Skipping Stones Magazine, Karen, Bridget, and all of the readers who have read, loved, and supported this book!

Continue reading “Another Honor for Small Mercies”

Big News for Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa

Please join Catalyst Press and our publishing partner, Short Story Day Africa, in congratulating Idza Luhumyo and Mbozi Haimbre. Idza was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for her story, “Five Years Next Sunday,” and Mbozi was shortlisted for a Nommo Award in the short story category for her story, “Shelter.” Both of these appeared in our recently-released collection, Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa, the newest Short Story Day Africa Anthology. Idza and Mbozi were also the winner and first runner-up, respectively, for the Short Story Day Africa Prize.

Congratulations, Siphiwe!

Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, author of The Theory of Flight and The History of Man, was among the eight winners of this year’s prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize. The award, which “calls attention to literary achievement and provides writers with the opportunity to focus on their work independent of financial concerns,” is administered by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. Siphiwe is joined by two other African writers on this year’s recipient list, Emmanuel Iduma from Nigeria and fellow Zimbabwean Tsitsi Dangarembga, who said of Siphiwe’s win, “I am delighted to see that Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu is a recipient of the Windham Campbell Award for Fiction this year. This is an extraordinary distinction, one that is particularly meaningful for Zimbabwean literature at a time when political repression and economic stagnation undermine artistic expression in the country.”

In the announcement on the organization’s website, Siphiwe is called “both a chronicler and a conjurer whose soaring imagination creates a Zimbabwean past made of anguish and hope, of glory and despair.” The prize, which comes with a $165,000 award, gives writers the time and the space they need to create without financial concerns, something that Siphiwe looks forward to. “I cannot even begin to fully articulate all the amazing things that this prize means for me at this stage in my career,” Siphiwe says. “There are still so many stories waiting to be told and now thanks to the Windham-Campbell Prizes at Yale, I will be able to tell them. I am both immensely honored and deeply humbled by this recognition.”

All of us at Catalyst Press send our hugest congratulations to this talented author, and we can’t wait to see what she creates next. Visit the Windham-Campbell website to see the full list of winners.