Tag: Jessica Powers | CatalystPress

Catalyst South Africa: Q&A with SarahBelle Selig & Izak de Vries

While our authors make us special, without SarahBelle Selig and Izak de Vries as part of our team, Catalyst Press would be missing a huge part of its heart and soul. While our U.S. team members keep things humming a world away, these two have made us a truly international company. Whether through their connections with South Africa’s literary community, or with the kind of personal touch that only comes from a face-to-face meeting, they have helped build Catalyst South Africa into, what we hope, is a part of the local reading scene. We couldn’t do any of this without them. Ashawnta Jackson, a U.S.-based Catalyst team member, chatted to the pair about their work.

SarahBelle, can you tell us a bit about your role at Catalyst? What is the South African branch up to?

Specifically in South Africa, I’ve got a bit of a liaison role, which means I’m working face to face with our local authors, our South African distributor, and the many great booksellers and educators we’re connected with here. Izak and I also tag team our local publicity: everything from getting reviews for our authors in South African media, to getting them on panels at festivals.

We’re having so much fun at Catalyst South Africa these days! We’ve ramped up our events, from book launches and comics workshops, to author readings at local school libraries and even a beach cleanup. We hosted a booth at the inaugural Comic Con Cape Town to show off our amazing line up of African graphic novels and to connect with readers. We’re busy prepping the release of our first ever Afrikaans book for kids, and we’re actively building out our relationships with local nonprofits, bookstores, and schools. The Catalyst office is definitely the most active here that it’s ever been, I’d say.

This Week in Literary News: Week of April 4

This month is full of chances to see Catalyst authors in action. First up, catch Catalyst publisher/founder Jessica Powers and her brother and Broken Circle (Akashic Books) co-author Matthew as part of Cochise College’s Community Creative Writing Celebration on April 16. The reading will be followed by a Q&A, then an open mic. Learn more here. And on April 21, you can catch Sifiso Mzobe, author of the award-winning novel Young Blood, as he steps on the virtual stage for Stony Brook University’s Creative Writing and Literature Writers Speak Wednesday series. The event will be streamed live on the university’s YouTube channel. More information here. Sifiso’s novel is out on April 13.

In other news, following the controversy around American Dirt, Michael Ugarte of Africa is a Country, raises questions about another book, Palmeras en la Nieve, whose “critical reception among historians of Spanish colonization efforts in Africa has been less than positive.”

“Animals have inspired writers since the beginning of the written word” The New York Times presents “Writer’s Best Friend,” a look at some notable writers furry friends, including Jackie Collins’ poodle, George Orwell’s goat, Muriel, and Toni Morrison’s cat. Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of April 4”

This Week in Literary News: Week of March 22

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

In Catalyst Press news, Catalyst founder/publisher, Jessica Powers was on the Intralingo Podcast! Watch or listen as Jessica discusses her new book (Under Water, published by Cinco Puntos Press), her connections to Africa, and other topics.

On Ozy, meet Fawzia Gilani-Williams, a teacher and author who is rewriting fairytales for Muslim children after she noticed the U.K.’s lack of diversity in children’s books.

Children’s publishers have reported a large rise in sales due to the shut-down of schools during this pandemic. Read more over at The New York Times,

The Washington Post gives readers a guide on different ways to participate in the literature scene, including live-streams, online book clubs, and where to find and buy books.

In these difficult times, Read It Forward has a short essay by Emily M.D. Scott about how libraries continue to affirm our humanity.

In more Catalyst news, King Shaka: Zulu Legend by Luke Molver is a finalist for Pop Culture Classroom‘s Best in Young Adult Graphic Literature! Part of Pop Culture Classroom’s mission is to celebrate diversity through the tools of popular culture and the power of self-expression.

Writer Lilly Dancyger gives us a perspective on the anxieties of publishing a book while struggling to cope with these recent changes to the world over on Electric Lit.

Over on LitHub, publicists discuss their change to online events and their thoughts about these technological adaptions.

Q&A with Matt & Jessica Powers

In addition to being great friends, brother and sister pair Matt and Jessica are also co-authors of the YA book Broken Circle (Akashic Books) and now, they’re co-workers here at Catalyst HQ. There’s no sibling rivalry here! Matt, who in in his downtime from being a parent and author, will also be heading up the newest Catalyst imprint—Powers Squared! In another life, Matt studied Oncology, eventually earning his PhD in Oncological Studies from the University of Utah. It was during his studies that he realized that science could be, and should be, for all of us. Science can dazzle us, excite us, captivate us, but only when it’s done in engaging ways. We’ll be bringing those kinds of engaging science stories to readers everywhere through the Powers Squared imprint—beginning with the first release Cat Among the Pigeons written by David Muirhead and featuring illustrations by Patricia de Villiers. Welcome to the team, Matt!

Matt and Jessica found some time between parenting, writing, and publishing to have a little chat about life as a Powers kid, reading and writing, and what you can expect from Powers Squared in the coming years. Learn more about the Powers Squared mission and Cat Among the Pigeons here.

This Q&A first appeared in our newsletter. If you want to see more great Q&As like this, plus be the first-to-know about sales, events, and lots of fun extras, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter!

Continue reading “Q&A with Matt & Jessica Powers”

Jessica Powers Interviewed by Literary Ashland

Check out this great interview with the awesome publisher/editor/writer/teacher/have we missed anything? Jessica Powers over at Literary Ashland! Some highlights:

On choosing the name Catalyst:

Books are my friends, my mentors, my spiritual advisors and my spiritual practice, my intellectual stimulation, my downtime. I believe strongly in the power of books to change individuals and, by changing individuals, to change communities and institutions and perhaps even nations. So I do see my books as a “catalyst for change,” specifically, change in mindset, values, and understandings of North Americans & Europeans towards Africa and Africans.

On leaving academia:

When you have a real passion for research and writing academic articles and books, then those expectations don’t feel like a burden—but for me, they were a burden. I was grateful for my time there and very grateful for the mentors I had, but I felt freed upon leaving—freed to do what I am really called to do in life, which is to write, and also to help others write.

On what she looks for as a publisher:

I want to publish and read books that are fast reads, on the one hand, but layered with multiple and complex meanings.

Check out the complete interview at Literary Ashland.