Tag: Crackerjack

This Week in Literary News, Week of September 27

There’s lot to celebrate this week!

Dark Traces
Dark Traces by Martin Steyn

Wednesday was International Translation Day, the perfect excuse to celebrate Catalyst Press’ amazing translators: Rachel Hildebrandt Reynolds (translator of The Farm and The Wall by Max Annas), Elsa Silke (translator of Sacrificed by Chanette Paul), Martin Steyn (author and translator of Dark Traces), and Ivanka Hahnenberger (translator of our upcoming graphic novel Madame Livingstone). Thank you for your commitment to bringing new voices to global readers!

It’s also Banned Book Week! According to the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, 8 of the 10 most banned and challenged books in 2019 included LGBTQIA+ content. (And because that sucks and we could all use some queer lit, here’s Fall’s most anticipated LGBTQIA+ Young Adult books and Emily Hashimoto on writing queer romance.) Washington Post critic Ron Charles read all ten and gives a rundown. Channeling your inner Ray Bradbury? Check out the full list of the top 100 most banned and challenged books of the decade. Continue reading “This Week in Literary News, Week of September 27”

Peter Church on South African Crime Fiction at CrimeReads

Head over to CrimeReads to read this insightful essay from author Peter Church. Peter examines how the country’s history and present plays a role in how crime writers have approached the genre. You can get your copy of Peter’s own entry into the genre, the techno-thriller Crackerjack, on February 26.

You could be forgiven for assuming South Africa is fertile ground for local crime fiction writers.  If the Scandinavians have created an industry from the pickings of their meagre experiences, surely the Southern tip of Africa would be bursting with such writers.

The truth is that crime fiction is almost too painful to bear in South Africa. The country is tottering on the tipping edge of corruption and crime.  Dominant publications are non-fiction and the scribes are investigative journalists peddling fact not fancy. Imagination withers in the face of stark reality.

Read the rest of Peter’s essay at CrimeReads