Tag: Joanne Hichens

This Week in Literary News, Week of November 29

First up, some big news in the Catalyst world this week: Kirkus Reviews named Bridget Krone’s Small Mercies as one of the best middle grade books of 2020, and Booker shortlisted This Mournable Body author Tsitsi Dangarembga listed two upcoming Catalyst titles, Sifiso Mzobe’s Young Blood and Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s The Theory of Flight, on her top 10 favorite books! Congratulations to our amazing authors – you are the reason we love what we do! [Ed note: We’re having a sale on all of our books all month long! You can pick up any of our books for 20% off this month, and find out exactly why we love these authors so very much!]

Our dear friend Izak DeVries interviewed the Catalyst team for LitNet this week, where we talked about South African and American publishing, exciting things coming up on our list, and our fourth #ReadingAfrica week, which starts this Sunday and goes until December 12! Along with our annual social media campaign, where we encourage readers, authors, and book-lovers of all kinds to post about what African authors they’re reading, we’re also hosting two virtual #ReadingAfrica events for the first time ever. This Sunday, December 6 at 12:00 EST and 19:00 South Africa time, join us for our kick-off event co-hosted with LitNet and featuring a number of authors and publishers from around the world, and on Wednesday, December 9 at 12:00 EST and 19:00 South Africa time, crime columnist Michael Sears will be moderating an African crime novel panel. Find out more and register here for both events. We hope to see you there! Continue reading “This Week in Literary News, Week of November 29”

This Week in Literary News, Week of November 15

Another week, another selection of some of the week’s news! (News here being defined as book and book-related. I’m not sure I have the strength to recap the news at-large).

Yewande Omotoso | photo by Victor Dlamini

Over at The New Internationalist, there’s a lovely short essay by Yewande Omotoso on why she’s filled her house with plants. Yewande is a regular contributor there, so be sure to check out more of her work— they are all just as lovely.  You can also pick up her fantastic novel, Bom Boy, of which we are proud to be the US publisher.

There are two great pieces at LitHub. The first, from Rebecca Solnit asks readers to seriously consider what it being asked of them with post-election calls to bridge divides: “[T]he truth is not some compromise halfway between the truth and the lie, the fact and the delusion, the scientists and the propagandists. And the ethical is not halfway between white supremacists and human rights activists, rapists and feminists, synagogue massacrists and Jews, xenophobes and immigrants, delusional transphobes and trans people. Who the hell wants unity with Nazis until and unless they stop being Nazis?” The second is a reprint of Walter Moseley’s speech from the National Book Awards where he was honored with The Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: “There’s a great weight hanging over the reception of an award when the underlying subject is, the first Black man to receive… We the people who are darker than blue, we have been here, on this continent, in this storm for 400 years. […] Is this a dying gasp or a first breath? Is today different from any other day over the past 400 years? I prefer to believe that we are on the threshold of a new day, that this evening is but one of ten thousand steps being taken to recognize the potential of this nation.” And congratulations to all of the NBA winners! You can see a list of honorees here.

Continue reading “This Week in Literary News, Week of November 15”

This Week in Literary News, Week of November 8

Things have been… interesting in the US recently, and there will certainly be. some stories to tell about the last four years. As the Associated Press reports, “In 2021 and beyond, look for waves of releases about the Trump administration and about the president’s loss to Democratic candidate Joe Biden.” But as for a book from Trump himself, “Several publishers told the AP that they don’t believe Trump will have the same global appeal as former President Barack Obama […] Any publisher signing with Trump or a top administration official might face the anger not just of Trump critics among the general public, but from within the industry.”

Scholastic announced a three-book deal with Ruby Bridges. Bridges, who at age six de-segregated New Orleans’ all-white William Frantz Elementary School on November 14, 1960, will “pen three new picture books to bring her trailblazing story to a new generation of children,” Publishers Weekly reports. Sadly, this week saw the death of Bridges’ mother Lucille. Of her own childhood, Lucille told the Courier-Journal in a 2009 interview, “The bus would come pick up the white kids, but I couldn’t go to school. I would watch them go with tears in my eyes. I prayed if I ever got married, I wanted my kids to go to school.”   Continue reading “This Week in Literary News, Week of November 8”

This Week in Literary News: Week of October 25

In censorship news (a phrase I hated writing, just for the record), The Poet X, the award-winning YA novel by Elizabeth Acevedo, is the subject of a lawsuit. Parents of a North Carolina charter school student have complained that that book, a coming-of-age story about a Latina teenager who finds comfort in poetry as she navigates her rapidly changing world, is “anti-Christian.” The parents have “asked the federal courts to remove the book from their child’s classroom.” In talking about fiction can change and shape our worldviews, Acevedo told the Atlantic in 2019, ” I can tell who reads fiction. […] I can tell which of them have read things that don’t look like them or sound like them or depict who they come from. You know.”

DIVINE JUSTICE BY JOANNE HICHENS

Congratulations to Joanne Hichens! Her book, Death and the After Parties (Karavan Press) is out (well almost). Her memoir of grief, recovery, and “the mainstays of life – friendship, family, and the memories of those we love and lose” releases on November 2! We’re proud to be the US publisher for Joanne’s thriller Divine Justice, which releases in January 2021.

Love comics? Love small presses? Good day for you, then. Here’s a great story at Atlas Obscura about Lion-Muthu Comics, an Indian press made up of “a four-person team translates Italian, French, and English comics into [Tamil], a language spoken by 70 million people.” Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of October 25”

Coming in 2021: Divine Justice by Joanne Hichens

For the next few weeks, we’ll be spotlighting our upcoming releases for the new year. You’ll learn a bit about our 2021 releases, their authors, and information about pre-ordering.

Since our founding, part of our mission has been to show thriller readers the wonders of South African crime fiction. Our first two releases were thrillers, after all. We’ve loved them from the beginning. We couldn’t be happier to add another title to our African Crime Reads Series—place-based crime and thriller novels set in locations throughout the continent— Divine Justice by Joanne Hichens. Continue reading “Coming in 2021: Divine Justice by Joanne Hichens”

Coming in 2020: Upcoming Releases Part 2

A few months ago, we covered what you’ll be seeing from us in the first half of 2020. And if we did the math right, that means we owe you news about six more months of releases. So here it is! We think we’ve got something for every kind of reader — from those reading their very first books, to those who’ve been reading for just a little bit longer. Many of these books are available for pre-order now. Continue reading “Coming in 2020: Upcoming Releases Part 2”