L-R: Catalyst Press founder Jessica Powers, Jive Media Africa/Story Press Africa co-founder Robert Inglis, Luke Molver
Huge congratulations to Luke Molver! His graphic novel King Shaka: Zulu Legend made its South African debut at the Midlands Literary Festival last weekend! Reviews have started to come in for the book; The Midwest Book Reviewhas praised the novel as “thoroughly engrossing from cover to cover” and Kirkus Reviews calls it “authentically enlightening and entertaining.” We’re hoping that readers everywhere will agree!
King Shaka author/illustrator Luke Molver
King Shaka, the continuing story of Shaka’s rise to power, comes to North America in October. You can pre-order your copy here!
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”
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”
Last year, we launched our first-ever Reading Africa Week. We wanted to bring attention to all of the writers who are doing all kinds of diverse and genre-spanning work from every corner of Africa. And because we’re an indie publisher, we really wanted to spotlight all of the great things our colleagues in the indie publishing world are doing. So if you want to a) highlight the diversity of African writers and b) show off how awesome the indie world is in doing just that, you start a campaign called Reading Africa—at least that’s what we did.
We reached out to a few presses and asked them to use the hashtag #ReadingAfrica on their social media posts to spotlight new books, old favorites, upcoming releases, and gems from their catalogs to show people that in the words of Cassava Republic founder Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, “African writing is not a genre. It encapsulates different genres.” This year, we’re planning an even bigger event, and we’ve reached out to more publishers, literary orgs, and bloggers. Continue reading “#ReadingAfrica Week”
Some members from the Story Press Africa team, our collaborative imprint with Jive Media Africa, were at Comic Con Africa, and they had an amazing time! It was a pleasure to meet so many dedicated fans, fantastic publishers, and talented artists and to bring Shaka Rising to South African audiences (and now, it’s official; Shaka Rising is available through North America and South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana!). We’re sharing some of our thoughts from the event, and what we took away from it. Read on for reflections from Hilary Kromberg and Robert Inglis. And for a really great visual wrap-up of the event, be sure to check out this one-minute documentary from the talented folks at DocuMinute (which features some artwork from Shaka Rising!)
Last month, author and illustrator Luke Molver (Shaka Rising) headed to Cape Town for FanCon, an annual comic and pop-culture festival. He shared his thoughts about the event (and some pretty great pictures) over at Durban Is Yours:
Organized by Readers’ Den Comic Shop and now in its third year, the annual comic and pop-culture festival was held in Cape Town from 28th – 29th April, to its largest attendance yet. Local and national comic creators, cosplayers, artists and fans engaged with international guests in a big ol’ pop-culture hootenanny of superheroic grandeur.
Even in the most affectionate way, I hesitate to use the words ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’ to describe such events nowadays. Pop culture being so ubiquitous in our media and daily lives, these interests can hardly be described as ‘niche’ any longer… and events like FanCon show that these interests are alive and passionate in South Africa, in bright comic book colours and punch-out- the-page costumes.
The cosplay cruisin’ around the con ranged from amateur to professional, and there were some insanely imaginative and creative outfits paraded about. You’d be amazed what can be constructed outta some glue, a shoebox, a few toilet rolls and a broomstick, and I’ve got a heckuva lot of respect for the home-made effort put into some of those costumes. I sold comics to a Jedi while chatting to the Guardians of the Galaxy, and borrowed a light from Daenerys Targaryan as she shared a gwaai with ol’ Jonny Snow. Workshops from international professionals such as Riki Lecotey and Chris Donio, who worked on props for the new Avengers Infinity War movie, gave cosplay enthusiasts and casual visitors the opportunity to literally learn the tricks of the trade.
Earlier this month, we did a Q&A with The Lion’s Binding Oath author Ahmed Ismail Yusuf in our newsletter (What?! You don’t subscribe? Let us help: Subscribe here).
If you’re in town for the Texas Library Association’s annual conference two things are true: one, you’re going to see so many amazing books and authors; and two, you’re going to have several opportunities to see Catalyst’s own Jessica Powers. This time, she’s taking off her publisher hat (well, pushing it slightly to the side) to make room for her author’s hat. She’ll be signing copies of her newest book Broken Circle (Akashic Books), and generally being awesome at a couple of talks.
On Wednesday, April 4 she’ll be signing books at the Ingram Librarians Party on Wednesday night from 5:30-7 (The Underground at Frankie’s Downtown 1303 Main St. Dallas, TX 75202). On Thursday April 5, she’ll be at the afternoon Texas Tea with the Authors at the Omni Hotel. And, on Friday, April 6 she’ll be on a panel (CPE#531: SBEC 1.0) “The Language of Dreams: Fantasy Fiction for Young Adults” from 10:30 – 11:30 am.
Stop by any of these. Say hello and don’t be alarmed by the sheer number of hats she’s wearing (at last count—author, publisher, editor, publicist…).
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 stellarreviews 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.
Some members from the Story Press Africa team, our collaborative imprint with Jive Media Africa, were at Comic Con Africa, and they had an amazing time! It was a pleasure to meet so many dedicated fans, fantastic publishers, and talented artists and to bring 
