This year’s #ReadingAfrica Week has sort of turned into #ReadingAfrica Month. That’s due to a few factors. One, we’re a small team and each year gets bigger and bigger, and we sometime can’t keep up. Two, life gets in the way, and things you’d hoped would be done by one date, gets shifted to another. Catalyst Press might be a brand, but the behind-the-scenes is a group of people, and we get sick, our kids get sick, or our work load suddenly increases. If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s to extend grace and kindness to everyone because you truly never know what’s going on in the background. And three, one of our events was rudely interrupted by trolls who we guess wanted to send the week out with a bang (a joke that any of you who were at the panel on translation last Friday will no doubt understand).
But because of those delays, we just may have a few other surprises to share with you this month. Stay tuned!
Of our planned and off-without-a-hitch, programming, we— if we may be so bold— knocked it out of the park. Yes, we’re a tiny team, but we’re a mighty one, and we couldn’t be prouder with how this year’s event turned out. Keep reading for a run-down of #ReadingAfrica Week 2023
This year, we included three live panels (and we’ll update this space with videos):
From Nairobi to New York: Kenyan Writers on the Rise, featuring authors Kiprop Kimutai, Khadija Bajaber, and Carey Baraka in conversation with Dr. Lizzy Attree co-founder of the Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature and Director (UK) Short Story Day Africa.
Writing a Greener World: How African Writers are Responding the Climate Crisis, with authors Chinelo Onwualu, Dr. Uchechkwu Peter Umezurike, Dela Gwala, Helon Habila, and Nelson Rolon in conversation with author and activist Bridget Pitt.
African Languages, Global Audiences: Publishers and Writers on the Art of Translation, a roundtable discussion on translated literature featuring authors, translators, and literary professionals with Hannes Barnard, Tina Kover, Bhakti Shringarpure, and Raphael Thierry.
Our founder, Jessica Powers, hosted three roundtable discussions at Africa in Words:
Q&A: Words on… Ambassadors at the Rights Café, Nairobi International Book Fair
Q&A: Words on… e-Kitabu – the Rights Café, Nairobi International Book Fair
Q&A: Publishing roundtable – #ReadingAfricaWeek
And an essay at LitHub “A Report From the 2023 Nairobi International Book Fair”
SarahBelle Selig was brilliant as ever in this interview with Africa in Dialogue
Also at LitHub, we assembled as panel of educators for a discussion, Black Lives Matter in the Classroom: A Roundtable on Teaching CRT and Disputed Literature Today
We curated a list on Bookshop.org, which appeared on the front page of the site
We’d like to thank all of the writers, readers, websites, schools, libraries and bookstores who participated this year! You’re what make this event so special. We’ll see you next year!
