Tag: Black Lives Matter | CatalystPress

This Week in Literary News, Week of June 14

In support of Black Lives Matter and Juneteenth, the hashtags #BlackPublishingPower and #BlackoutBestsellerList have been trending, encouraging people to buy books by Black authors and from Black-owned bookstores from June 14-June 20.

If you’re unsure which books to buy for your children or teens on the topic of anti-racism, Publishers Weekly released a list. The lengthy list encompasses both non-fiction and fiction titles, and spans picture books to novels. At Catalyst, we also published a smaller list, including adult books and organizations to support, should you wish.

The National Book Critics Circle’s board fell apart this past week over charges of internal racism. Almost 2/3 of the board members resigned, and the remaining board has committed itself to doing the hard work of changing its structure and approach to be specifically anti-racist.

In censorship news: This week, the highest-ranked leader in the land, our President, attempted to ban a book by John Bolton, the former national security adviser. The book purportedly offers an insider’s view on the President’s egregious behavior. Mr. Trump claims that the book reveals classified secrets and should not be released. Advocates for its release argue that if he successfully bans the book, it will undo decades of free speech precedent. Court hearings began June 19th.

In Catalyst Press news, we released Bitter Pill by Peter Church this week. Bitter Pill is the third installment in his Dark Web Trilogy, and continues our African Crime Reads series. Publishers Weekly has praised Bitter Pill, writing, “Church expertly juggles the multiple story lines all the way to the sordid, frantic maelstrom of the denouement.” You can read an excerpt from the novel at CrimeReads.

Last but not least, sales of audiobooks have been moving upward for the last several years and continue to rise. We have several of our books available as audiobooks, including Small Mercies by Bridget Krone, Crackerjack by Peter Church, The Wall by Max Annas and translated by Rachel Hildebrandt Reynolds, and in a couple of months, Unmaking Grace by Barbara Boswell.

This Week in Literary News, Week of June 7

The #PublishingPaidMe hashtag is making waves on Twitter, raising awareness about the massive discrepancies in author advances for writers of color compared to their white counterparts. On June 8, more than 1,000 workers in the publishing industry participated in a day-long strike, taking the day off their regular work duties to be “in service of the Black community: protesting, organizing, fundraising support, phone banking, mutual aid,” and working on books by Black creators.

Working on a COVID-themed manuscript? So is everyone else, according to literary agent Erin Clyburn, who reported to NPR that agents are seeing more and more writers submitting pandemic stories. But don’t rush it and sacrifice quality, she begs.

Electric Lit lists 24 new and forthcoming books that celebrate all facets of Black lives, and urges readers to seek Black literature beyond books on racism. NBC News published a thought-provoking piece on the rise of anti-racist book lists, and Washington Post gives some numbers on the massive surge of readers buying books on race.

In award news, The Shirley Jackson Award nominees were just announced. The award celebrates “outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.” And if you haven’t read them yet, here are the complete texts for the five AKO Caine Prize finalists. The Prize received an unprecedented (and incredible!) 222 submissions from 28 African countries this year.

Nigerian writer Emeka Joseph Nwankwo wrote on how African women in publishing are bringing inclusivity to the forefront, a necessity urged by Girl, Woman, Other author Bernardine Evaristo this week.

Missing the museum? Electric Lit recommends 10 books set in museums to last you through lockdown. Not enough to satisfy your escapism bug? LitHub has you covered, with five 20th-century books about travel. And ICYMI: an argument for reading (and against shaming) the summer “beach read.”

In Catalyst news, Ameera Patel’s Outside the Lines officially hit North American shelves this week! Read an excerpt on CrimeReads. Bitter Pill, the final installment of Peter Church’s beloved Dark Web trilogy, get its North American debut on Monday. The e-books of the full series are available for 25% off on our site all summer long.

Finally, Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist and Ogresse creator Cécile McLorin Salvant reads Black lesbian poet Audre Lorde’s “The Bees,” published posthumously in the 2009 anthology Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry.

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”

What We Believe

“The right of a man to stand upright as a human being in his own country comes before the questions of the kind of society he will create once he has that right. Freedom is the only thing that matters until it is won.” —Julius Nyerere

From our founding, Catalyst Press has been committed to publishing books that not only entertain, but create empathy and understanding and say something powerful about the world we live in; current events have only strengthened that commitment. We stand with communities all over the world who are demanding equality, freedom, and justice. We are now, and always, committed to anti-racism, not just in words, but in policies, actions, and activism. We unequivocally believe that Black Lives Matter.

We understand that these are difficult times, and that for many of us, this is a time when the weight of racism is heavier than ever. Know that for those who are struggling, we are thinking of you and we support you. For those who want to be allies to those who are bearing more right now, use this time to listen, to learn, to speak up, to stand in solidarity. We care about words, and right now, our voices are powerful. We can’t, and won’t, and shouldn’t be silent. We believe in equity and justice, not just today, but always.