Tag: Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

This Week in Literary News: Week of January 3

The Thousand Steps

In Catalyst news, CrimeReads included Sifiso Mzobe’s North American debut, Young Blood, as one of their most anticipated crime books of 2021! Young Blood will be available in April. BookClubz also selected Helen Brain’s The Thousand Steps, the first book in her dystopian Fiery Spiral trilogy, as their Young Adult pick for January! The second book in the series, The Rising Tide, is out later this year. And we’ll soon be partnering with BookClubz to coordinate a Catalyst Press book club featuring contemporary and classic African literature – so stay tuned!

The writing world lost Eric Jerome Dickey this week, who died at 59 after a several year battle with cancer. Dickey wrote almost 30 novels on topics of Black life and love and sold more than 7 million copies. In South Africa, beloved cookbook author and food critic Dorah Sithole died at the age of 67, just months after the release of her newest book, 40 Years of Iconic Food, which follows her journey from a child in a South Africa township learning to love food to traveling the world as a leader in African cuisine. Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of January 3”

Designing the Cover for The Theory of Flight

Karen Vermeulen

We spend a lot of time talking about what’s inside of our books— and with good reason! But one thing that makes books such a great experience, both inside and out, is the cover art. We’ve been so very lucky to work with artist/writer Karen Vermeulen on a number of book covers, including Love Interrupted, The Thousand Steps, and Unmaking Grace. Karen also did both the cover art and illustrations for Small Mercies, and we’re also proud to be the publisher for her forthcoming illustrated memoir. Stay tuned for more info on that!

Karen’s work has helped tell a piece of the story before the first page is even turned, and that’s really clear in her cover design for the forthcoming release The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu. This beautiful novel with hints of magical realism is set in an unnamed African country, and, through the lives of interconnected families, tells the story of decades of national history.

We chatted with Karen about her process of designing the cover for The Theory of Flight. You can read more about her work in this Q&A, and be sure to check out her website, Instagram, and Twitter.

Continue reading “Designing the Cover for The Theory of Flight”

This Week in Literary News: The Goodbye 2020 Edition

Welp. I think we can all agree, 2020 was quite the year. And for publishing it was a year of ups and downs. Sales tanked, then rose, then tanked, then rose. Book fairs went virtual, which we can all agree is not ideal, but hopefully can represent some hybrid opportunities in the future. People learned to attend, and like, virtual events with authors from all over the world. For us at Catalyst, this gave us the opportunity to think big when it came to the fourth annual #ReadingAfrica week, and we held two virtual events with participants in North America, Africa, and New Zealand.

In literary news for the end of the year, the Frankfurt Book Fair has announced it will be changing the way it does things in the future, with a stripped down version focusing more on rights sales but still with a public-facing event for book-lovers.

Book sales rose over 5% in the week before Christmas (yay for those of you who give books for Christmas!). Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: The Goodbye 2020 Edition”

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”

Coming in 2021: The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

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.

We’ve been proud to be the North American publisher for several acclaimed and award-winning books. Bom Boy (South African Literary Award), Love Interrupted (Aidoo-Synder Book Prize), and Unmaking Grace (University of Johannesburg Prize for South African writing), among others. We’re pleased to add another such title to our catalog in 2021: The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu.

Continue reading “Coming in 2021: The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu”

This Week in Literary News, Week of April 19

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

Down on Both Sides by Caroline Kurtz

This week in Catalyst News!:

We have teamed up with four publishers— City Lights, Cinco Puntos, Enchanted Lion, and Readers to Eaters— to promote a new and diverse selection of children’s books. From history to poems, take a look at these books here!

Our own Caroline Kurtz has won the Presbyterian Writers Guild’s biennial Best First Book Award for A Road Called Down on Both Sides: Growing Up in Ethiopia and America. It’s a double celebration as her sister, Jane, also won the Presbyterian Writers Guild’s David Steele Distinguished Writer Award. We wish them both congratulations!

Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (The Theory of Flight) has an essay on Times Select. Read about the author’s thoughts on how we can all learn something from feeling powerless.

In other literature news:

The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

Cartoonist Peter Kupur created illustrations for Earth Day to talk about Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the book that begun to raise awareness about the environment. Check it out at The New York Times. 

If you’re a history buff looking for something new to read, Electric Lit has got you covered with seven books about forgotten wars.

Lit Hub has an essay from Mai Tran, who writes about how writing becomes an outlet for those who are socially anxious.

Is there a book that you’ve been trying to get through for weeks? Read It Forward has an article on why you shouldn’t feel bad about quitting a book.

Finally, Book Riot has the finalists for the 25th Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist, which celebrates excellence, originality, and accessibility from women authors.

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”