Tag: Story Press Africa

Q&A with Jive Media Africa

Our monthly newsletter is full of good stuff. We’ve got author news, events, and special sales. We have a good time there. Part of that good time is also being able to publish Q&As with our authors and partners that we then get to share with you. We’ve been republishing these Q&As here at our blog (you can read them here), but if you want to be among the first to read them, you can subscribe to our newsletter here!

The Q&A we’re sharing this time is with our South African partners, Jive Media Africa. We’ve teamed up with them to create our imprint Story Press Africa. Story Press Africa’s mission is to bring African histories and figures to life in the pages of our African Graphic Novel Series. The first installment in the series was Shaka Rising, and we’re so excited to bring more stories like this to readers everywhere. Continue reading “Q&A with Jive Media Africa”

Do You Have a Story to Tell?

Story Press Africa, our collaborative imprint with South African media company Jive Media Africa, is looking for submissions from artists and illustrators who want to tell the stories and histories of Africa as part of our African Graphic Novel Series.

The first installment in the series, Shaka Rising—a graphic novel for young readers—told the story of a young Zulu leader’s rise to power against the backdrop of one of southern Africa’s most turbulent times. We want to continue bringing these stories to the page and to readers everywhere. Please read our submission guidelines and get in touch if you have a proposal. We look forward to hearing from you!

Continue reading “Do You Have a Story to Tell?”

Check Your Mailbox! Shaka’s on the Way!

Pretty soon, a whole bunch of you will be walking to your mailboxes, and there, tucked between a magazine, grocery store flyers, an electric bill, and all of the other assorted things that show up in the mail these days, will be something we’re super proud of—a copy of Shaka Rising. Through your support and generosity, we were able to fund our Kickstarter project and get started on the next installment of our African Graphic Novel Series. It’s all because of you.

When we joined forces with the good folks at Jive Media Africa to form the imprint Story Press Africa, it was because we wanted to share all the wonder, the excitement, and the richness of African history and knowledge. Historical figures like Shaka have a lot to tell us about, not just African history, but about our world, and we’re thrilled to share it with you.

A lot of people made this happen. A lot of people cared about sharing Shaka’s story with their kids, their libraries, and their communities and that’s why we made our goal—people like you supported this brand new thing we’ve started. Shaka Rising is the first in a long, long line of African Graphic Novel from Story Press Africa. We’re just getting started and we’re so happy to have you along for the ride.

Thanks for believing in us and the work we’re doing! If you like Shaka Rising, be sure to spread the word! Leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, your website, or in some sort of elaborate semaphore (if you pick semaphore, please send a video. We’d love to see that). Let your schools, libraries, and community groups know that you got your hands on an awesome graphic novel that’s teaching African history in a fun and accessible way, and that they should get in on it, too. Basically, tell everyone you know that Shaka Rising is here and that because of you, a second installment is on the way.

A big THANK YOU to all of you who donated to our campaign, and be sure to keep watching to see what’s next for us! An especially huge thanks to our partners at Jive Media Africa!

Many thanks to our donors:

Einar Petersen
Mary Fountaine
Emily Dietrick
Ntsike
Anonymous
Erin Subramanian
Jamil Burns
Paul Glasser
Ray “Raytoons.Net” Mullikin
Noel Mills
Chandra Orrill
Shean, Semeicha and Sapphira Mohammed
Robert L Vaughn
Tinsley
Lisa Jensen
In honor of Michael Kromberg
Mary Puthoff
Tessa Moon Leiseth
Peter LaPrade
The Spitzers
Rosie Tullis-Thompson
The Briar Patch
Nate Gillespie
Maureen Babb
Rico Schacherl
The Bells
Mark Gunter
Rachel
Matt Powers
Kathy Shepler
Alberta Jackson
Catherine Ndungu-Case
Assembly of Literatures for Adolescents of NCTE
Derek W.
Matty Sankauskas
Anonymous
Dennis and Becky
Helen Musselman
Edi
Glynnis Belchers
Justin
Kathleen Shannon
Sarah
Scott
Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and Platinum Studios

 

Notes from NCTE

NCTE was held in St. Louis this year. The view wasn’t so bad.

November was a busy month here at Catalyst/Story Press Africa HQ. Our authors were shining at other blogs and getting stellar reviews for their great work. Meanwhile, our publisher, editor,  and general get-things-done-er, Jessica has been pretty busy, too. She’s been donning her cloak (she switched the cape out for it) at readings and conferences across the country in promotion for her new book, Broken Circle (Akashic Books), with (of course) a healthy dose of Catalyst thrown in.

The sibling duo at this year’s NCTE conference.

 

Most recently, Jessica and her co-author (her brother Matt) were at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference and the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) in St. Louis. Jessica presented on books and social justice at NCTE, and the duo were also being awesome on a panel at ALAN. And two of our books, We Kiss Them With Rain and Shaka Rising were presented in front of nearly 600 educators at ALAN.

And you know what? You know why we do this thing we do? Why we play with words, arranging and rearranging them, turning them over, just to make sure that for a minute, for a page, for a paragraph, for a sentence someone gets to find themselves in book? I could tell you, but I think Matt said it way better than I could on the panel.

In recounting his struggles with reading as a child and how much teachers, storytellers, and people who love literature can make a difference in helping a kid see themselves in words, Matt (beautifully) said:

“In your classrooms, you are a family. You can help give kids who need it an identity, a story of themselves, that helps them make it.”

That’s why we do it. Every reader was that kid once, and maybe still is. Each of our books, from the darkest crime novel to an educational graphic novel, is about reaching a reader.

One thing I’ve always loved is hearing one of our authors, Martin Steyn (Dark Traces) talk about what got him into writing. It was reading Stephen King and losing himself in that world that made want to create that feeling for someone else. It’s unbearably cool that we get to do that here, that we get to share stories and let storytellers do their thing.

Story Press Africa in the Publisher Spotlight Booth at NCTE.

Catalyst Press Featured in Publishers Weekly

Many thanks to Publishers Weekly for featuring our launch.

Drawing on her years of publishing experience and love of African culture, Jessica Powers, YA author and longtime editor and publicist at Cinco Puntos Press, has started Catalyst Press. The indie publisher will focus initially on contemporary African literature, as well as graphic novels based on African historical events and figures.

Catalyst Press is launching with four titles this fall, and has distribution through Consortium. The house’s initial list will include three adult novels released under the Catalyst imprint, in addition to the first title in the African Graphic Novel Series, a line of YA graphic novels based on African historical events and figures.

Read more at Publishers Weekly