Category: News | CatalystPress

9 Catalyst Books to Celebrate Earth Day

Today is Earth Day, an annual event that encourages us to not just acknowledge this beautiful spinning rock we call home, but to think deeply about the ways that our actions— big and small— affect it. As big and vast as the planet is, it still needs our protection, our care, and our concern.

Though reading isn’t the same as activism, it is a powerful first step to help us make sense of the world we live in and why it’s so important to protect. With that in mind, here are nine books from our catalog that examine some of the perils of climate change, the diversity of plant and animal life, the effects of colonialism on the environment, and more. From fantasy/sci-fi, to graphic novels, to essays, these Catalyst books will help you connect to our precious planet. You can purchase all of our titles at our IndiePubs site!

Remembering Niki Daly

It is with heavy hearts that we share the news of the passing of beloved children’s author and illustrator, Niki Daly. We were honored to not just publish his work, but to call him a friend. His spirit and love practically burst from the pages of his books. The warmth and kindness in his words so perfectly echoed those in his heart.

Throughout his long career, Niki was the author/illustrator of over forty books for children. His critically-acclaimed books earned him a US Parent’s Choice Award, a Children’s Africana Book Award, a Children’s Literature Choice Award and the Parents’ Choice Silver Award, among many others. Most recently, he was awarded a Skipping Stones award for his book, Fly High, Lolo and a Charlotte Zolotow Award for his final book, On My Papa’s Shoulders, a beautiful ode to fathers and sons.

Niki had that ineluctable ability to write and illustrate irresistible children’s stories. And it’s no wonder, because he loved kids. But more than that, he respected them. He respected their voices, their thoughts, their emotions, never speaking down to them, but immersing himself in their world, and shining it back to them in his work. That is part of him that will live on— years from now, eras from now—in the smiles and excitement of a new generation turning the pages of his books.

All of us here at Catalyst Press send our deepest condolences to his wife, Jude, his sons Joe and Leo, his granddaughter Emily, and his daughter-in-law Magriet.

Catalyst South Africa: Q&A with SarahBelle Selig & Izak de Vries

While our authors make us special, without SarahBelle Selig and Izak de Vries as part of our team, Catalyst Press would be missing a huge part of its heart and soul. While our U.S. team members keep things humming a world away, these two have made us a truly international company. Whether through their connections with South Africa’s literary community, or with the kind of personal touch that only comes from a face-to-face meeting, they have helped build Catalyst South Africa into, what we hope, is a part of the local reading scene. We couldn’t do any of this without them. Ashawnta Jackson, a U.S.-based Catalyst team member, chatted to the pair about their work.

SarahBelle, can you tell us a bit about your role at Catalyst? What is the South African branch up to?

Specifically in South Africa, I’ve got a bit of a liaison role, which means I’m working face to face with our local authors, our South African distributor, and the many great booksellers and educators we’re connected with here. Izak and I also tag team our local publicity: everything from getting reviews for our authors in South African media, to getting them on panels at festivals.

We’re having so much fun at Catalyst South Africa these days! We’ve ramped up our events, from book launches and comics workshops, to author readings at local school libraries and even a beach cleanup. We hosted a booth at the inaugural Comic Con Cape Town to show off our amazing line up of African graphic novels and to connect with readers. We’re busy prepping the release of our first ever Afrikaans book for kids, and we’re actively building out our relationships with local nonprofits, bookstores, and schools. The Catalyst office is definitely the most active here that it’s ever been, I’d say.

March Events with Bridget Pitt

March will be a busy month for Eye Brother Horn author, Bridget Pitt. Not only will she be basking in the glow of her great reviews (the newest from World Literature Today calls it a “heartwarming—and wrenching—tale”), but she’ll be having two in-person event in South Africa.

Join her at the Book Lounge in Cape Town on March 16 at 6pm. She’ll be in conversation with literary critic, David Atwell. Visit the Book Lounge’s website to RSVP.

And on March 29, she heads to Johannesburg for a conversation with Pippa Smith, owner of The Book Revue. The event begins at 6:30pm and will be held at Glenshiel Mansion. Tickets are R150 all all profits will be donated to Friends of the Wild. Email pippa [at] thebookrevue.co.za to RSVP.

Eye Brother Horn, a sweeping tale of colonialism, identity, kinship, and atonement set in 1870s South Africa, is out now.

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 “It’s 2023!” Edition

Hot from the Press

Moses, a Zulu baby discovered on a riverbank, and Daniel, the son of white missionaries, are raised as brothers on the Umzinyathi mission in 19th century Zululand, South Africa. As an infant, Daniel narrowly escapes an attack by a rhino and develops an intense corporeal connection to animals which challenges the religious dogma on which he is raised. Despite efforts by his adoptive mother to raise the boys as equals, Moses feels like an outsider to both white and Zulu society, and seeks certainty in astronomy and science. Only through each other do the brothers find a sense of belonging.

Since her mother left, Pearl has spent more and more time in the ocean, fishing to help her father pay the bills. But when she gets mixed up with a group of illegal abalone poachers and starts diving near a restricted wreck, Pearl meets an ancient sea monster named Otto—who isn’t quite as monstrous as she thought. a South African adventure story exploring how we are both bound to and freed by nature, seen through the eyes of a tough teen-aged heroine determined to live life by her own rules.

Happy new year, Catalyst family! After a wonderful holiday season, we are rested and ready for a big year here at the press—with eight (!!) titles in store for you all in 2023. First up are our two January arrivals, Eye Brother Horn and Pearl of the Sea, which you’ll be hearing lots about on our socials leading up to their simultaneous releases on Tuesday, January 31^st. We can’t wait to share these amazing books with you.

Until then, here’s a bit of Catalyst news for you to kick off the year! Our two Panel & Page releases for 2023—Pearl of the Sea and KARIBA—were included on this epic line-up of 2023 African creative projects to look out for from Squid Mag, and our two January releases were also included on this January roundup from the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses. Ameera Patel’s Outside the Lines is the African Book Club’s January book club pick and you can register here for their virtual discussion on January 22^nd, which Ameera will be attending to answer reader questions. And finally, check out Pearl of the Sea co-author Raffaella Delle Donne in conversation with Ayo Oyeku on Muna Kalati!

The Year in Review

This has been quite a year for us! You can read all about it in this wrap-up from Catalyst Press founder/publisher, Jessica Powers. And though we’re nearing the end of the year, there’s still time to support Catalyst and the books and authors you love!

All of our books are 30% when you buy from our website. Just use the code READING at check out. You can also support us through our Bookshop.org shop, which features our books plus our special #ReadingAfrica Week book lists featuring some of our favorites and books from the authors who graced the virtual stage for our #ReadingAfrica panels.

You can also support us with a one-time or recurring tax-deductible donation through Fractured Atlas, a 501(c)(3) arts organization that has offered us fiscal sponsorship.

We’re going to be hanging up our “Gone Reading” sign for the rest of the month, so things will be a little quiet while the Catalyst team gets some much-needed rest. We’ll see you in 2023!

This has been an astonishing year for Catalyst Press. We have now been publishing for six years! Our first books—Dark Traces by Martin Steyn and Sacrificed by Chanette Paul, both translations from Afrikaans into English—came out in November 2017. I’m honored to have started with those two stellar books, and honored by how far we’ve come.

This year marked milestone after milestone for us. From Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, whose critically-acclaimed and award-winning books we’re proud to publish, being named a Windham-Campbell Prize Winner, to finally getting a review in the New York Times Sunday Book section, to most of our children’s books being selected as Junior Library Guild honor books, to publishing this year’s Caine Prize winner, to starred reviews, to other honors, to other awards, to books being named to important lists… It’s been an incredible year. As I keep saying to people when they ask, “It’s all amazing…and now, if the press can just start making money!”

Warming up the Inkubator

We loved working with Short Story Day Africa to release the anthology, Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa last year. This collection brought together writers from across Africa, each writing about the many ways that we grow, adapt, and survive in the face of our ever-changing global realities. Short Story Day Africa as long been a force in the African writing community. Through their writing and editing workshops and the Short Story Day Africa Prize, they have nurtured dozens of writers and editors, and brought many to international attention. This year, one of the writers featured in Disruption took home the prestigious Caine Prize, and we don’t see this momentum stopping anytime soon.

We were proud to partner with them on Disruption, and are excited to work with them again on their newest anthology. These stories will come from the writers of Inkubator, an intensive, three-month, online seminar designed by Short Story Day Africa and Laxfield Literary Associates. Through this program, writers develop, grow and hone their fiction writing and self-editing skills. The twelve writers chosen for the seminar are mentored by a distinguished group of writers, editors, and publishing professionals, and their final works will be compiled into an anthology.

And here’s where we come in.

The Spark: The #ReadingAfrica Edition

Hot from the Press

#ReadingAfrica Week 2022 is officially here! Kicking off this Sunday, December 4, our sixth annual celebration of all things African literature is shaping up to be our biggest and best yet. We’ve worked so hard to bring together an amazing line-up for you all, including three virtual events, several written roundtables, guest blogs, daily social media challenges, and more!

This year’s live virtual events are:

Sunday December 4th at 2pm EST — Who is African: Place, identity, and belonging in literature, co-hosted with LitNet
Tuesday December 6th at 2pm EST– Behind the Scenes: African filmmakers & writers on interplay and adaptation, co-hosted with the James Currey Society
Saturday December 10th at 2pm EST– The young reader: African children’s literature, co-hosted with World Kid Lit

You can register here for these three amazing events and download our social media challenges here. And make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay in the know about all things #ReadingAfrica! And don’t forget to use the hashtags #ReadingAfrica and #ReadingAfricaWeek all week long December 4-10 to highlight your favorite African reads. You can also find books from several of our panelists at our Bookshop.org shop. For authors whose work isn’t available in the US, be sure to check out African Books Collective!

In other Catalyst news, we’re thrilled to see two of our books on this year’s 100 Notable African Books list from Brittle Paper! Huge congrats to the creators of All Rise: Resistance and Rebellion in South Africa and Niki Daly of On My Papa’s Shoulders for the huge honor. And another huge congratulations to Yewande Omotoso, whose novel An Unusual Grief also made the list. We’re proud to be the US publisher for Yewande’s novel Bom Boy.

Niki Daly is on fire! On top of that Brittle Paper honor, Fly High, Lolo, the fourth book in Niki’s beloved Lolo series, was named one of the Best Books of 2022 by School Library Journal, and On My Papa’s Shoulders was awarded a South African Literary Award for Children’s Literature!

The reviews have also been rolling in for our upcoming middle grade novel Pearl of the Sea. Publishers Weekly calls it “a winning story of friendship, nature, and trust,” Foreword Reviews says it’s a “vibrant coastal coming-of-age story with secrets, monsters, and thrills throughout” and Kirkus dubbed it “a heartfelt tale.” Check it some sample pages and pre-order here. Pearl of the Sea is available January 31 in North America and March 1 in South Africa.

And ICYMI, read this great feature from Open Country Mag about Pearl of the Sea and our other forthcoming graphic novel, KARIBA, available in June.