Category: Young Adult | Page 2

This Week in Literary News: Week of January 10

I guess this is what is known as an eventful week. There is just so very much is happening in the world at any given moment. Here’s hoping everyone has what they need to make it through this, and what are sure to be many more, eventful weeks.

One of the big events here in the US is the second impeachment of Donald Trump. I, for one, have really been putting my high-school civics education to use over the past week (and four years). For those who either want to brush up on the impeachment process, or pass along that info to a young learner, Pop Culture Classroom has a free comic about the Watergate Scandal, and “using the Watergate Scandal as context, this comic also provides students insights into the impeachment process and how it protects the checks and balances between Federal branches.” And over at JSTOR Daily (full disclosure: I’m a regular contributor there), they’ve created “Politics and Power in the United States: A Syllabus,” to help put our current political moment into historical context. And the New York Times is soliciting comments on how “teachers, particularly history, social studies, or civics teachers […]” are “addressing last Wednesday’s storming of the Capitol with their students.”

Africa in Words has a wrap-up post featuring all of the literary happenings over the past month. Festivals! Readings! New Books! Events! They’ve even included one of our favorite events from December— our #ReadingAfrica Week celebration and panel discussions.

“Women had always been part and parcel of the independence movement in Africa. In Southern Africa and Tanzania they stood side-by-side with the men to fight, so they were very much part of it.” As part of their series, “Reclaiming Africa’s Early Post-Independence History,” Africa is a Country has an interview with Fatma Alloo of the Tanzania Media Women’s Association on how women have, and continue to, use media to create change. Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of January 10”

This Week in Literary News: Week of January 3

In Catalyst news, CrimeReads included Sifiso Mzobe’s North American debut, Young Blood, as one of their most anticipated crime books of 2021! Young Blood will be available in April. BookClubz also selected Helen Brain’s The Thousand Steps, the first book in her dystopian Fiery Spiral trilogy, as their Young Adult pick for January! The second book in the series, The Rising Tide, is out later this year. And we’ll soon be partnering with BookClubz to coordinate a Catalyst Press book club featuring contemporary and classic African literature – so stay tuned!

The writing world lost Eric Jerome Dickey this week, who died at 59 after a several year battle with cancer. Dickey wrote almost 30 novels on topics of Black life and love and sold more than 7 million copies. In South Africa, beloved cookbook author and food critic Dorah Sithole died at the age of 67, just months after the release of her newest book, 40 Years of Iconic Food, which follows her journey from a child in a South Africa township learning to love food to traveling the world as a leader in African cuisine. Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of January 3”

Coming in 2021: The Rising Tide by Helen Brain

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.

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.

Ebba’s story continues in the second book of the series— The Rising Tide, set for release in June 2021.
Continue reading “Coming in 2021: The Rising Tide by Helen Brain”

This Week in Literary News: Week of August 16

This week’s news is up a little later than usual, but filled with enough news to get you through your week ahead!

Jacana Media has issued its annual call for the Gerald Kraak Prize and Anthology, an anthology and prize on the topics of gender, human rights and sexuality, for writers and photographers across Africa. Submissions are open all year.

Speaking of Jacana, we’re pretty impressed with their “Don’t Shut Up” conversation, masterclass, and broadside series. If you haven’t checked these out, you should. You can catch up on old conversations at their Crowdcast website.

Publishers Weekly reports that even though many independent bookstores have closed permanently, some brave, entrepreneurial book-lovers have actually opened new bookstores during the pandemic! And they are succeeding! We love bookstores and are pleased to hear it. Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of August 16”

This Week in Literary News: Week of August 9

All this month we’re having a Summer Friday sale where you can save big (really big. 40% off big) on a themed selection of our titles. Last week it was out kids/YA books, and this week, we’re celebrating our women authors. Save 40% on some great books by using the code SUMMERFRIDAYS when you check out. This sale is only available when you order through our site.

And speaking of women authors, this month is Women in Translation month, a great opportunity to read globally. Started in 2014 by book blogger Meytal Radzinski, this month-long celebration of world literature focuses on women authors who write in languages other than English. According to stats on Radzinski’s blog, “approximately 30% of new translations into English are of books by women writers.” Women in Translation Month encourages readers to seek out and promote these books. Use the hashtags #WomeninTranslation or #WitMonth to share your reads and to find book recommendations. CLMP also has a helpful list of titles to get you started, including our own Sacrificed by Chanette Paul. Want some more ways to broaden your reading horizons? Check out these Q&As from translators Elsa Silke, who translated Sacrificed, and Rachel Hildebrandt Reynolds who translated The Wall and The Farm by Max Annas (The Wall is out now, The Farm releases September 15).

And let’s keep talking about women, because honestly, why not? The Smithsonian celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, which gave many women in the US the right to vote, by highlighting 19 suffrage stories that history has often overlooked. As they write on the project’s website, “For many women, especially women of color, the fight didn’t end when the 19th Amendment went into effect on August 26, 1920.” Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of August 9”

The Fiery Spiral: The Rising Tide

Continue reading “The Fiery Spiral: The Rising Tide”

This Week in Literary News, Week of June 21

There’s a great new online exhibit of African comic art. “Afropolitan Comics: From South Africa to the Continent, Images in Conversation” features “tales from across Africa as the artists and writers construct new narratives in one of the oldest forms of expression.” We’re so proud that one of the featured artists is Luke W. Molver, the author/illustrator for our series of graphic novels on the life of legendary Zulu leader, Shaka (Shaka Rising, King Shaka).

South African author Elsa Joubert died recently, another in the long list of those lost to the coronavirus. Joubert is best-known for her apartheid-era novel The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena, which as the New York Times reports in their obituary, “opened the eyes of many white South Africans to the harsh treatment that the black majority had been enduring largely out of their sight.”

There was criticism over the lack of diversity among the winners of the Media24 Book Awards (South Africa). As the Johannesburg Review of Books reports, the outcry was a reaction to “the fact that all the winners of the awards, as well as the majority of the shortlisted authors and judging panels, are white.” Media24 has issued a statement acknowledging the issue, which you can read here.

Book cover for Small Mercies — **Small Mercies**

We began the first in what we hope is a long-running series of conversations with Catalyst authors, friends, and partners this week. Our first installment in our “Conversations with…” series features our office manager SarahBelle Selig in conversation with Small Mercies author Bridget Krone.

Even as states begin the long process of reopening, the need to connect online still seems as relevant as ever. One way to do that is by starting a virtual book club. Jessica Pryde at BookRiot offers some tips for starting your own through your public library.

Andy Fitch from the LA Review of Books recently spoke with Rep. Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American legislator in the United States, to discuss her recently released memoir, Somalia, her politics, and why she’s put her faith “in seeing what American democracy looks like when elected officials actually engage the people.”

Outside the Lines, our recent release by Ameera Patel, has been earning praise all over: Publishers Weekly (starred review), Shelf Awareness, Ms. Magazine, CrimeReads, and others. We chatted with Ameera about her work, her book, her writing process, and more. Read our Q&A with her here. You can also read an excerpt from the book at CrimeReads. And since you’re already gearing up to visit CrimeReads, make sure to also check out the excerpt from another of our recent releases, Bitter Pill by Peter Church, which has also earned its fair share of praise from Publishers Weekly, NY Review of Books, Cosmo, and others. We’re also offering the e-books of Peter’s Dark Web Trilogy for a special price all summer long. Check it out here.

“I think those of us who acknowledge the humanity of young people, those of us who acknowledge the complexity and the beauty and the sophistication of childhood know that when you’re writing it, all of those elements have to be present.” Author Jason Reynolds (All American Boys, Long Way Down) chats with Krista Tippett of On Being about children’s literature and the power of books to heal.

And finally, we are pleased to take part in the PEN World Voices Festival’s Indie Lit Fair. The Fair, hosted by the Festival and the Community of Literary Magazine and Presses (CLMP), “showcases the breadth of independent magazines and presses our country has to offer.” There are so many amazing indie publishers featured— from book publishers to magazines to literary journals— each offering special pricing on several of their items. We’re presenting three award-winning books: Love Interrupted by Reneilwe Malatji, We Kiss Them with Rain by Futhi Ntshingila, and Bom Boy by Yewande Omotoso, at a special price when you buy all three. Visit the Indie Lit Fair here.

Where to Begin: Reading lists, resources, and organizations that need your help

This is a time for listening, yes, but it is also a time for doing. But remember, what doing looks like for you could look vastly different from someone else. Movements are made of lots of individual roles, and you, like many of us, will need to find your part to play. And that requires a deeper understanding of the world around you. We believe that voices and texts are powerful ways of gaining that, and have assembled a list of some books that we think can help us understand.

This list is, by no means, comprehensive. It contains both fiction and non-fiction, poetry and academic work, books for adults and young readers. Since so many of our authors are African, and part of our mission at Catalyst is to amplify those voices, you’ll also find several books by African authors, many of which were written to speak to times, conditions, and politics that, in many ways, mirror our own. There are books here that speak to the whys and hows of how we got to this moment in time, but there are also some that celebrate Black history and activism, or simply just Black lives— important things to remember and hold on to right now. We will be periodically adding to this list.

If you want to extend your reading into other action, we have also included a list of resources and organizations who are fighting against racism, against police brutality and state violence, and for Black lives. We’ve all been moved to speak, but now we have to be moved to action, and we include ourselves in that call. We’re going to continue doing the work that we need to do here at Catalyst to make sure that justice, empathy, and equity aren’t just our words, but our actions.

If you purchase any of the books here, please consider doing so through Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores, or through your favorite bookstore or publisher’s website. If you need suggestions, here’s a list of independent Black bookstores you can support.
Continue reading “Where to Begin: Reading lists, resources, and organizations that need your help”

This Week in Literary News, Week of May 10

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.

Finally, in Catalyst Press news, check out the Q&A we did with Niki Daly. Daly is the author and illustrator of our May releases, Here Comes Lolo and Hooray for Lolo.

This Week in Literary News, Week of May 3

Great week for Catalyst Press news!:

The New York Times has recently added one of our books, Outside The Lines by Ameera Patel, to its Globetrotting list under the Africa category. Check out the other books from other continents too!

SarahBelle Selig, who manages our South African operations, has an essay on World Literature Today. Read about the rules about living in isolation she learned from reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

The Lion’s Binding Oath: and Other Stories by Ahmed Ismail Yusuf is on Brittle Paper‘s list of sixteen short story collections by African authors from indie presses (Us!)

Over at The Johannesburg Review of Books, Yewande Omotoso’s (author of Bom Boy) story titled “Boy” is highlighted as part of their “Best of the JRB” feature.

Last but not least, we have a new release! The Lolo Series by Niki Daly is out now, with Here Comes Lolo and Hooray for Lolo available in paperback or hardback!

In other literary news:

Brittle Paper has a feature about Botlhale, a YouTube channel that discusses African literature while also creating teaching tools for it.

Booksellers are finding creative ways to get books to their customers. Book Riot has a list of literary care packages from different bookstores, each with different focuses ranging from bilingual books to romance novels.

The BBC has an article about how the reading boom that has been happening during this pandemic, and the genres that the public could be picking up more and more.

Lastly, NPR informs us that Joy Harjo, the U.S.’s first Native American Poet Laureate, has received a second term by the Library of Congress.