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.
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A previously unpublished, unfinished story from Little Women author Louisa May Alcott was released this week, and it looks like we may not have to wait much longer for the next Game of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]
In just a few short weeks, it feels like the world as we have known it has collapsed. We’re all trying to keep in touch as best we can, and those of us who can work from home are doing so, but we know that a lot of people have lost or will lose their jobs; we know that people will have trouble paying rent or feeding their families. And meanwhile, all of us have to deal with the fear and uncertainty of an illness that can be deadly, and may affect us or our loved ones.
The economic shutdown of the USA has affected book publishers in myriad ways. Amazon is making shipping of books a low priority. Independent booksellers have changed the way they work with customers, and are working to ship online orders as well as provide curbside pickups. But booksellers and publishers alike are going to be dramatically affected by the quarantines and shelter-in-place orders, primarily through loss of sales, but also through loss of marketing opportunities to get the word out about our books through reviews and other outlets that are also not operating under optimal conditions (or at all.)
Catalyst Press is committed to weathering this storm but, as a new small press we are especially vulnerable to a tank in sales. This is true for all small presses, not least for us. For those of you who really want to support us during this time, here are a few ways:
If you’re in North America, you can order new and older books directly from our website or from independent bookstores at this link.
South Africa is in a severe lockdown right now, and deliveries of books aren’t happening. In the meantime, you can order ebooks at Amazon. We always want to support independent bookstores but in this particular case, please do buy ebooks on Amazon! But if you want to buy physical books and you can wait for them to be delivered, you can order copies from LAPA, our distributor in South Africa, and they will resume deliveries when they can.
We are also able to accept one-time or recurring tax-deductible donation through Fractured Atlas, a 501 (c) (3) arts organization that has offered us fiscal sponsorship. This is an option we’d love for you to consider anytime, of course!
Even if ordering books or offering donations is not possible for you at this time, we love hearing from our supporters on social media, this blog, or via email, so please feel free to drop us a kind note anytime. We’d love to hear about past books we published that you loved, future books you’re looking forward to, or suggestions for future books.
Thanks guys. Keep in touch and stay well!
Jessica, Publisher & Founder, Catalyst Press (with imprints Story Press Africa & Powers Squared)
This has been a busy month for us! We’ve started the new year with three new releases (plus ended the last year with one, which is also included here). All of these are available at your favorite booksellers and right here at our site.
The Thousand Steps by Helen Brain
The first book in Helen’s Fiery Spiral series for Young Adult readers, The Thousand Steps 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.
Dark Video by Peter Church
The next installment in Peter Church’s Dark Web Trilogy, Dark Video is set in the early days of internet video sharing. A group of wealthy people are willing to pay any price for unimaginable videos. Cape Town college student Alistair Morgan is lured deeper and deeper into this sinister underground world where reality blurs and morals.
Cape Town: A Place Between by Henry Trotter
The first in our Intimate Geographies Series — short books of around 100 pages— which aim to help readers go beyond the surface of fascinating places. Cape Town: A Place Between weaves the history of city’s intersecting histories and cultures with Henry’s own experiences as an American living, working, and building a life there for nearly twenty years. While not a traditional travel guide, Cape Town invites readers into the city with hopes of sparking first-hand exploration with its mix of travel narrative and literary non-fiction.
Unmaking Grace by Barbara Boswell
Released in December
UnmakingGrace is a story an intimate portrayal of the legacy of inter-generational violence set in Cape Town in the 1980s. In this gripping novel, we meet Grace whose life is forever altered by her father’s violence. In her efforts to break the cycle in her own life, she finds a measure of peace in the stability of her middle-class lifestyle—complete with loving husband and baby. But when a figure from her past returns, Grace realizes that breaking free will be more difficult than she imagined.
There is a lot that has to happen behind the scenes before we can get our books to readers. Edits, rewrites, marketing, event planning, design—it’s nothing if not exciting! While our author Q&As and From the Editor’s Desk features generally cover many of those (and if you don’t know what those are, all will be revealed if you subscribe to our newsletter!), but we focus on cover design a bit less often. That changes today! We talked extensively with artist Karen Vermeulenlast year about her work, and now we’re chatting with Karen again about just one cover— the upcoming YA sci-fi novel The Thousand Steps by Helen Brain.
The Thousand Steps is the first in HelenBrain’s Fiery Spiral Trilogy, and is a dystopic sci-fi Young Adult novel set in Cape Town in 2055. After spending her entire life living in a bunker deep inside of Table Mountain, 16-year-old Ebba is released when the truth of her lineage is revealed. While learning to navigate the unfamiliar “Above,” Ebba must fight for her survival, and that of her friends still below. The Fiery Spiral is an eco-feminist trilogy that examines how class, race, and social identity are foundational to the ways in which society is organized and power wielded. It releases on January 7.
Today is Pi Day, an annual celebration of the mathematical constant pi (π). Since the day is kind of a science-y one, it is a perfect time to introduce you all to the newest member of the Catalyst Press family— our new imprint Powers Squared. Why today? Thanks for asking! Because Powers Squared will be the home for books that explore our world with a scientific eye. So everything from the natural sciences, to physics, to astronomy, and even science-fiction and speculative fiction—all with a global eye—will be featured on this new imprint.
Helmed by Matthew Powers, co-author of the YA novel Broken Circle (Akashic Books) along with his sister and Catalyst founder Jessica Powers, Powers Squared is the perfect place to find a book to explore science and nature. The first book we’ll be publishing is Cat Among the Pigeons, a smart and funny look at the wild world of South Africa’s animal life, by David Muirhead, set for release in January 2020. Stay tuned for more info on the imprint, and its future releases!
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”
We’ve had a good year so far. Since January, we’ve released four books making our current catalog six books deep. We’re really proud of the work we’ve been able to do since we’ve launched, and we’re excited about what the future holds.
Let’s talk about the future.
We can’t wait for you to read our next releases. There are kid’s books, thrillers, sci-fi, graphic novels, memoirs, fiction, non-fiction, you name it. We thought we’d share some of the great Catalyst titles coming to bookstores in the next year. Some are available for pre-order right now, if that’s your thing (we hope it’s your thing). And if you’re looking for any of our current titles, they are for sale right here on this very site, if that’s your thing (we hope that’s your thing, too). You can keep up with us as we share more news about these releases by signing up for our newsletter. Continue reading “Coming Attractions”
In more Catalyst news, 
Helmed by Matthew 
