This Week in Literary News: Week of July 18

NIKI DALY

Let’s start out with some Catalyst news! Niki Daly, the author of several children’s books including the Lolo series, was recently awarded a South African Children’s Laureate Award by the University of the Western Cape Faculty of Education and the SA Festival of Children’s Literature. In presenting Niki the prize, children’s lit scholar and editor Dr. Mia Oosthuizen, said it nicely “you capture the imagination and children’s magnificent everyday lives.”

“Thirty years ago, few people in the art world were interested in Africa. The images of the continent that circulated at the time were primarily news images of famines and wars. At best, people had an exotic vision of it.” Great article on how Revue Noire, a magazine and publishing house that brought a nuanced view of Africa through photography.

Our friend Lizzy Attree has a wonderful essay at Africa is a Country on what literature can teach us about our connections to nature and what we owe to the Earth. We are thrilled to be working with Lizzy, and all of the wonderful folks at Short Story Day Africa to release Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa in September. Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of July 18”

Q&A with Karen Vermeulen

Karen and Sir Henry

We think our books are good on the inside. Really, really good, in fact. We also think they’re pretty good on the outside, too. We consider it an added bonus. The reason they’re so nice inside and out, is one Karen Vermeulen. Karen is an illustrator who has designed the covers for We Kiss Them With Rain, The Lion’s Binding Oath, and the upcoming Love Interrupted (not to mention the releases coming next year that will have her special touch). We chatted with Karen to talk about her work, what goes into designing the perfect cover, and what’s next for this talented artist.

Keep up with Karen (and Sir Henry) on her website and on Instagram @Karen_vermeulen_illustration

Continue reading “Q&A with Karen Vermeulen”

Q&A with Martin Steyn

We’ve been re-posting interviews with Catalyst authors that originally appeared in our newsletter, because everyone—newsletter subscriber or not—should read these. Our authors are that good. But if you wanted to subscribe to our monthly newsletter, we wouldn’t mind. In fact, we’d be pretty happy about it. You’d get interviews like this plus event updates, giveaways, new release info, and more!

These past few months have been exciting for us, and Dark Traces is certainly a big part of that. The US-debut thriller by Martin Steyn has earned him quite a bit of praise. Library Journal called it a “captivating debut thriller,” and in a starred review, Kirkus praised the novel as “a dark, intriguing, and satisfying tale with strong characters.” We chatted with Martin about Dark Traces, his process, and the politics of crime writing.

Dark Traces is out now and available through Indiebound and Amazon. You can also read an excerpt from the novel here.

Continue reading “Q&A with Martin Steyn”

Women in Translation Month, Futhi Ntshingila

We’ve loved seeing all of the awesome women being spotlighted as part of this year’s Women in Translation Month. Such an incredible and diverse group of writers. We’d like to introduce you to our own writers who are working in translation. You can read our first post here. Continue reading “Women in Translation Month, Futhi Ntshingila”