Dis net vel, my pel!
Catalyst South Africa is Growing!
Hi everyone!
If we haven’t met, I’m SarahBelle Selig and I’m the South African Office Head for Catalyst Press—or as I like to call it, “boots on the ground” in Cape Town for all things Catalyst. My role changes by the day: it could be publicizing a new book, meeting with our distributors, coordinating an event, or, my personal favorite, catching up with one of our amazing authors.
We’ve had a few big changes here in South Africa lately, including transitioning to our new local distributor, Protea Distribution, releasing a new fiction book and a graphic novel, and last but certainly not least, welcoming a new member to the team, Izak de Vries!
Izak is technically new to Catalyst, but he’s been a part of the Catalyst family for years. He previously worked for our former distributor Lapa Uitgewers, but he’s also been a close friend of Jessica’s for many years—so he’s been an incredible friend to the press since our founding in 2017, and has been a champion of our books in more ways than one. Now, Izak writes for LitNet, and he has graciously joined our team part-time to help me steer the boat and expand our work here in South Africa.
Whether it’s out and about at a book launch, or sipping cups of coffee in his Mowbray home with a dog in my lap, I love any opportunity I get to work with (and learn from) Izak, so I’m especially thrilled that he’s joined the team. And I can’t wait to introduce him to you today!
You can also stay up-to-date on Catalyst South Africa, by subscribing to our South Africa-focused mailing list (which will occasionally feature Afrikaans editions)
What’s New in 2022
Fall is in the air here (translation: I’m already cold). As the calendar pages start falling away on 2021, we thought it’d be a good time to give you all a little sneak peek at our upcoming titles— many of which are available for pre-order.
We’re excited to add more books from one of our favorite children’s authors, Niki Daly, our very first young adult book in translation, and a new addition to our growing list of graphic novels. In addition to those, we think there’s something for just about every kind of reader in our 2022 catalog. Continue reading “What’s New in 2022”
It’s National Translation Month!
September is National Translation Month, an annual celebration of translated literature. Now in its ninth year, this annual celebration encourages readers to learn more about and read global literature in translation from authors, both past, and present. This month, we’re celebrating by offering 20% off on all of our translated titles when you buy from our online store (current releases only. Not applicable to pre-orders). Keep reading to learn more about these books, authors and translators! Plus, learn about one of our forthcoming translated books for YA readers. Continue reading “It’s National Translation Month!”
Q&A with Elsa Silke
This has been a really great Women in Translation Month so far. We’ve been clicking on that #WiTMonth tag and finding some great reads (because when your to-be-read piles looks like the ones at Catalyst HQ, what’s one more?). There are a wealth of amazing voices all over the world waiting for readers. We have a few of our voices to spotlight this month, so be sure to check out our other posts from this, and WiTMonths past, to read about our authors, our translators, and how you can continue to add more world literature by women to your bookshelves.
We’re continuing our celebration by chatting with translator Elsa Silke. Elsa was the translator for Chanette Paul’s continent-hopping thriller Sacrificed. She is an accomplished translator who has translated works by Ingrid Winterbach, Irma Joubert, and in 2006, she was awarded the SATI/Via Afrika Prize for outstanding translation in fiction for her translation of This Life by Karel Schoeman. We talked to Elsa about her background, translating Sacrificed, and how translated works enrich readers. (Check out this three-chapter excerpt (PDF) from the novel!) Continue reading “Q&A with Elsa Silke”
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.
Q&A with Chanette Paul
We’re re-posting some of our author interviews that we’ve featured in our newsletter. Consider these just a little taste of all of the great things we send straight to your inbox every month. Keep up-to-date with all of the Catalyst Press goings-on by subscribing to our newsletter! We’re fun and our authors are amazing. It’s a win-win.
This Q&A is with author Chanette Paul. Her North American and English-language debut thriller Sacrificed was released in October 2017. The New York Journal of Books praised the novel and Chanette calling it “a page-turner that will keep you reading long past the moment the midnight oil burns out,” and hailing Chanette as “among the classiest thriller writers of our day.” We chatted with Chanette back in October right before the release of Sacrificed, a thriller fusing politics, race, and family drama. Read an excerpt here (PDF), and you can order the novel via our website or IndieBound. Continue reading “Q&A with Chanette Paul”
Women in Translation Month, Chanette Paul
In her post introducing this year’s Women in Translation Month, the event’s creator
It’s not just about this August, or next August, but about celebrating diverse literature every day. Expanding just one month’s reading list can open up a world of possibilities, of viewpoints, of ideas. It’s what we hope our books do for our readers, and, more to the point, what we hope reading does. We step outside of our lives every time we open a book, and whether that new experience brings us joy, or thrills, or sadness, or knowledge, we leave with more understanding. Now, more than ever, we need to look towards diverse voices and perspectives in art and listen to their stories.
As part of Women in Translation Month, we’d like to introduce you to some of our authors who are working in translation. First up, Chanette Paul:
Chanette is a South African author of more than 40 books in her native language Afrikaans. 
On October 10, we are pleased to release her first English-language novel Sacrificed (translated by Elsa Silke), a translation of Offerlam. Sacrificed follows Caz Colijn from the Congo’s diamond mines to Belgium’s finest art galleries, and from Africa’s civil unrest to its deeply spiritual roots in her search for the truth about her trouble past.
Continue reading “Women in Translation Month, Chanette Paul”