It’s reading season! The Catalyst team has assembled some of our favorites for all the book-lovers on your gift list this year!
Got a young bookworm at home? Here are my top picks for teen and tween readers.—SarahBelle Selig, South African office manager/publicity
A young boy brings his community together in a creative way in The Cedarville Shop & the Wheelbarrow Swap. Set in the last days of South Africa’s apartheid-era, Halley’s Comet finds three teens in an unlikely friendship, bound by a shared secret. An ancient prophesy sets 16-year-old Ebba on a quest to save the world in The Thousand Steps, book one of the Fiery Spiral trilogy.
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.
We’re excited to release The Rising Tide, the second book in Helen Brain’s Fiery Spiral trilogy, a dystopian fantasy series for young adult readers. The Rising Tide continues the saga of sixteen-year-old Ebba den Eeden, who has spent her life in a bunker deep within Cape Town’s Table Mountain. She, and the other inhabitants of the bunker, have grown up believing the world “above” was left uninhabitable due to nuclear war. When Ebba is suddenly released from the bunker, she discovers that everything she knew—about the world above and her own life—was wrong. Now shouldering an immense responsibility, Ebba must use her power to stop a second apocalypse. She must listen to her instincts, even if it means destroying the things she holds most dear. Who can she trust to help stop the second “Calamity,” now just days away? Who will betray her? Continue reading “Out Now: The Rising Tide by Helen Brain”
Congratulations are in order for author Tsitsi Dangarembga. The author and filmmaker who was recently shortlisted for the Booker Award for her novel This Mournable Body, has just been awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. She is the first Black woman to win the prize. We love Tsitsi around these parts, not just because she’s an amazing writer, but that she has championed two of our books— Young Blood by Sifiso Mzobe and The Theory of Fight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu—naming them as two of her favorite books in a Vulture article last year, and providing a blurb for Siphiwe’s novel.
And speaking of Siphiwe and congratulations, she was shortlisted for the Writing Gender residency sponsored by Huza Press and the Goethe Institut Kigali. The residency supports two authors–one African and one German—as “they complete or make significant advances with a work-in-progress novel manuscript.” The program hopes to make space “for opening up conversations about gender, its modes of construction, histories, representation and relationality to power.” We are so proud to publish Siphiwe’s novels, The Theory of Flight (out now) and The History of Man (coming January 2022). Good luck, Siphiwe!
Note: This post is originally from November 2019. We’re sharing it again because we’re excited to release the second book in Helen’s trilogy—The Rising Tide—on July 13, 2021. Learn more about the book, and order your copy here. You can also enter to win a copy of The Rising Tide at Goodreads. The giveaway runs through July 6.
We’re so excited to add more books for young readers to our catalog. It has always been a part of who we are. We recognize the importance of giving kids and young adults the tools they need to be readers for life. One of the most important tools is giving them books that speak to them and their experiences. Books that value their voices and their concerns. It’s one of the many reasons we’re so proud to publish The Thousand Steps by Helen Brain.
The Thousand Steps is the first in Helen’s futuristic Fiery Spiral trilogy, and is the story of 16-year-old Ebba who has lived her entire life in a bunker deep within Cape Town’s Table Mountain. When she is suddenly elevated from the bunker, she finds that everything she knew about her life, and the world “above,” was wrong. Now shouldering the immense responsibility of her new life, Ebba must fight to save her friends still trapped in the bunker and facing execution any day. Helen’s book deftly explores race, class, and climate change while telling a story that will captivate young readers. School Library Journal praised the book writing, “This novel will draw readers in with its high stakes and well-developed characters.”
In Catalyst Press news, the winners of this year’s Short Story Day Africa Prize have been announced! We’re thrilled to be releasing Disruption, the newest Short Story Day Africa anthology, to the North American market in September. Disruption features stories from 21 new and emerging authors from across Africa, including the winning short stories of this year’s prize. Pre-orders are available now.
For the next few weeks, we’ll be spotlighting our upcoming releases for the new year. You’ll learn a bit about our 2021 releases, their authors, and information about pre-ordering.
Helen Brain, photo by Patrick McKenna
If you’re like us, Helen Brain’s novel, The Thousand Steps, left you wanting more. The first in Helen’s Fiery Spiral Trilogy, a dystopian fantasy series for young adult readers, introduced us to 16-year-old Ebba. Ebba, like most of the population in the book’s futuristic Cape Town setting, lives in a bunker deep within Table Mountain, far removed from the world “above,” which she and the others believe was destroyed. When Ebba is suddenly elevated to the outside world, she discovers everything she thought she knew was wrong, and that she holds the power to change the world.
