We are thrilled to be the US publisher for Sifiso Mzobe’s multi-award-winning novel Young Blood. This gripping coming-of-age/crime novel is set in the South African township of Umlazi and centers on Sipho, a teenager who finds himself spiraling deeper and deeper into the township’s criminal underworld. How far can he push his luck before there’s no turning back?
Sifiso recently sat down with Joanne Hichens for an interview with The Big Thrill Magazine about his work and the novel. If that interviewer’s name sounds familiar, it’s because Joanne can also be seen around Catalyst HQ (virtually, anyway) as the author of another one of our books— Divine Justice, which is also out now! Continue reading “Sifiso Mzobe in The Big Thrill”
This month, we were proud to release the thriller Divine Justice by Joanne Hichens. Divine Justice is the first book in Joanne’s Rae Valentine series, and we’re excited to introduce readers to this feisty, smart, and tough character.
Rae is a newly-minted PI, recovering addict, and in the middle of healing from a big breakup when she is hired to find a set of missing diamonds. The case sends her deep into the dark and violent world of the white supremacist gang, the Core, whose xenophobic and racist crime spree has been terrorizing Cape Town. And once the gang has Rae in their sights, the case may be more than she can handle. (And be sure to visit CrimeReads to read an essay from Joanne about the ways that the resurgence of white supremacist violence played a role in crafting hers, and other crime novels in South Africa.)
Divine Justice has earned praise from PublishersWeekly, The Mysterious Book Report,LitNet, and authors like David Swinson (The Second Girl and Trigger), who writes, “Divine Justice is a no-nonsense, walloping thriller, with an intoxicating and smart protagonist in Rae Valentine. Be sure to find a comfortable spot before opening the book because once you’re taken on the ride it is hard to get off.”
We chatted with Joanne about her work, how she handled having two books releasing at the same time, and why crime writing was a way for her to “see the baddies get what they deserve.”
This month, we were proud to release Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s award-winning novel The Theory of Flight in North America. When it was released in South Africa, the novel was awarded the Barry Ronge Fiction Prize. We are pleased to give even more readers the opportunity to read this beautiful book.
This sweeping epic explores decades of family and national history through the lives of a group of interconnected characters. Through the country remains unnamed in the novel, its history closely mirrors that of Zimbabwe, and the plot centers on Genie whose family and friends struggle to come to terms with her impending death. This novel sketches, through the lives of a few families and the fate of a single patch of ground, a nation’s history – from colonial occupation through the freedom struggle, to the devastation wrought by the sojas, the HIV virus, and The Man Himself. At turns mysterious and magical, but always honest, The Theory of Flight explores the many ways we lose those we love before they die.
The novel has earned praise from Bustle, Full Stop Magazine, and Publishers Weekly where it earned a starred review. Tsitsi Dangarembga, author of Nervous Conditions and the Booker-Prize-shortlisted novel, This Mournable Body also named the book one of her ten favorites in this list at Vulture magazine. (And you can read an essay at LitHub on how Zimbabwean authors like Tsitsi have inspired Siphiwe’s work.)
We chatted with Siphiwe about her work, the difficulties of defining a book like The Theory of Flight, and how fiction helps us “maneuver the often rocky and complicated terrains of the past and present.”
We spend a lot of time talking about what’s inside of our books— and with good reason! But one thing that makes books such a great experience, both inside and out, is the cover art. We’ve been so very lucky to work with artist/writer Karen Vermeulen on a number of book covers, including Love Interrupted, The Thousand Steps, and Unmaking Grace. Karen also did both the cover art and illustrations for Small Mercies, and we’re also proud to be the publisher for her forthcoming illustrated memoir. Stay tuned for more info on that!
Karen’s work has helped tell a piece of the story before the first page is even turned, and that’s really clear in her cover design for the forthcoming release The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu. This beautiful novel with hints of magical realism is set in an unnamed African country, and, through the lives of interconnected families, tells the story of decades of national history.
We chatted with Karen about her process of designing the cover for The Theory of Flight. You can read more about her work in this Q&A, and be sure to check out her website, Instagram, and Twitter.
Last month marked the release of Bitter Pill, the final book in Peter Church’s Dark Web Trilogy, a page-turning series that explores the dark side of our digital lives.
Peter recently chatted with Michael Sears of The Big Thrill magazine to talk about his latest book, his inspiration for the book, and how his writing process has been affected by the ongoing coronavirus lockdown in South Africa. All three books of the trilogy are out now, and all summer long, we’re offering a special price on the e-books when you buy from our site!
From the article:
BITTER PILL is the third book in Peter Church’s trilogy centered on Dark Video, a malevolent pornography organization that skulks on the dark web.
The protagonist, Robbie Cullen, is a student who becomes unwittingly caught in Dark Video’s tentacles. After a chance encounter with a girl who turns out to be a stripper, he’s shocked to discover that he stars in an online sex video. When he tries to resolve the issue with the stripper, he discovers her dead.
In parallel, we follow the exploits of Julian Lynch, one of Dark Video’s customers for victims of the Mickey Finn Club—barmen who spike girls’ drinks with a date rape drug. And pulling the strings of all this is Carlos Da Palma, the secretive man behind Dark Video. He trusts no one except Samuel Chester, his hitman.
BITTER PILL is a twisty book with memorable villains. Church talks more about it in this exclusive interview for The Big Thrill.
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:
The Theory of Flight
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.
Small Mercies
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…
After losing South African treasure Elsa Joubert last week, we said goodbye to two more literary legends, including the father of Chicano literature Rudolfo Anaya, and Charles Webb, the man who gave us The Graduate.
Queenie author Candice Carty-Williams became the first Black author to win Book of the Year at the British Book Awards, and Girl, Woman, Other author Bernadine Evaristo also scored an award. Here’s what Carty-Williams had to say about her win.
On that note, The New York Times published a collection of interviews with Black authors, agents, editors and booksellers on what it means to Black in publishing. A collaborative research report on the industry, titled “Rethinking ‘Diversity’ in Publishing,” (PDF) was also released this week, featuring a foreword by Evaristo.
John Bolton’s hotly debated memoir sold over 780,000 copies in its first week, and another Trump book is on the way: a New York court gave Simon & Schuster the green light to publish President Trump’s niece Mary L. Trump’s tell-all book, set to release this month.
A previously unpublished, unfinished story from Little Women author Louisa May Alcott was released this week, and it looks like we may not have to wait much longer for the next Game of Thrones book. More good news: Lucasfilm just announced a huge publishing deal to produce a series of novels, storybooks, comics and more, based on the wildly popular Star Wars spin-off, The Mandalorian.
We have two new additions to our “Conversations with…” YouTube series, a series of conversations with Catalyst authors, friends, and partners. This week, our publisher Jessica Powers is in conversation with A Road Called Down on Both Sides author Caroline Kurtz and Bunmi Emenanjo, founder of Atlas Book Club. And ICYMI: check out my conversation with Small Mercies author Bridget Krone last week.
Finally, Washington Post with the headline we can all agree on. [Ed. Note: And, though she’s too modest to share, for a follow-up to this, check out SarahBelle’s article at World Literature Today on how one bookstore is responding to these new, browser-less times]
We’re excited to bring another exciting new voice to North American readers. Ameera Patel’s genre-crossing novel Outside the Lines is part thriller, part family drama, part literary fiction, told from multiple viewpoints. Set in the middle-class suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa, the novel’s narrative also crosses lines— class, racial, and religious—to peel back the facade of its characters’ seemingly placid suburban lives.
Drug-addicted Cathleen is kidnapped and her distracted family fails to notice her absence; Zilindile, who services Cathleen’s drug habit, and his Muslim Indian girlfriend Farhana, struggle to make sense of their relationship despite their very different backgrounds; and domestic worker Flora and the silent Runyararo, who was painting Cathleen’s house until accused of theft by Cathleen’s father, become entangled with romance and criminals, leading to the ultimate tragedy.
We caught up with Ameera to chat about her book, her writing process, and how her experience as an actor and playwright helps her in her fiction writing.
Our weekly round-up of literary news here at Catalyst and beyond, is brought to you by our intern Naomi Valenzuela. Naomi is from Phoenix, Arizona and El Paso, Texas, and is majoring in Creative Writing and minoring in English & American Literature at the University of Texas, El Paso, with plans of working in the publishing business after graduation
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a good opportunity to diversify children’s reading (and parents’, too!). Brightly has a list of 10 Children’s & YA Books by Asian Authors.
Bring some fun into your quarantine reading with Brittle Paper‘s list of African Romance Fiction. All the books on the list come from Love Africa Press, an indie, digital-first publisher focusing on this genre
Over at The Guardian, read about the movement that’s taking place by Francophone African authors to make their books available in Africa.
The New York Times gives some book recommendations and how to do your summer reading even with summer limitations.
At Electric Lit, there’s an essay discussing Albert Camus’s The Plague and what we can learn about it beyond the epidemic.
If you’re a bookworm tired of all these different reading lists, don’t worry. The Washington Post has an article discussing why any type of book is helpful.
Also in The Washington Post, we have 12 of the novels that changed history. With different genres, from The Cat in the Hat to 1984, these books continue to impact society.
The BBC has an article about why we find comfort in the dystopian genre, whether it be in literature or even gaming, during a crisis.
This Q&A was done by our intern Naomi Valenzuela. Naomi is from Phoenix, Arizona and El Paso, Texas, and is majoring in Creative Writing and minoring in English & American Literature at the University of Texas, El Paso, with plans of working in the publishing business after graduation. You can find other author Q&As here.
This month, we have not one but two marvelous releases from award-winning author Niki Daly: Here Comes Lolo and Hooray for Lolo. The Lolo series introduces us to Lolo, a generous and artistic South African girl. Lolo always finds adventures, even in the most mundane situations. With her mother and grandmother by her side, Lolo is ready to take on anything. Children will love these stories as Booklist mentions in their review, “With a simply written, graceful text and gray-scale pictures on nearly every page, these appealing stories are just right for children moving from beginning readers to chapter books.”
Niki Daly is not only the author, but also the illustrator of these two books. Daly is a South African, author-illustrator, well-known throughout the world with a great number of children’s books written, and several awards won. Some of these books include Not So Fast Songololo, with awards in South Africa and the U.S., and Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky.
In this author Q&A, we talked to Niki about his inspirations when creating Lolo, how his childhood influenced his writing, and his advice for future writers.
In more Catalyst news, 
Finally, in Catalyst Press news, check out the 