Tomorrow is Independent Bookstore day! Check out IndieBound’s indie bookstore finder and go buy yourself a book (or two, or twelve–we won’t judge!) to celebrate. UK bookstores have reopened just in time to take part in the revelry, and book sales went up a third in less than a week.
Our friends at the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative have welcomed a new writer on board. Please join us in welcoming their newest reviewer, South African author Lebohang Masango who joins the #WorldKidLit Wednesday team.
There’s a short Q&A at Africa in Words with Lizzy Attree. Among the many things she does, Lizzy is also the director of Short Story Day Africa (SSDA), and we’ll be working with her and her team this year as the US publisher for the SSDA anthology Disruption. Stay tuned for more information on that!
“On March 6, 1971, a group of some of the top musicians from the United States -– Ike and Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, the Staple Singers, and more -– boarded a plane bound for Ghana to perform in a musical celebration that was dubbed the “Soul to Soul Festival.”’ Afropop Worldwide revisits the festival on its 50th anniversary with musicologist John Collins, poet and scholar Tsitsi Ella Jaji (who, by the way, wrote a beautiful blurb for Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s The Theory of Flight), concert goers and more. They’ve also included a companion piece of selected readings and videos.
CAPE TOWN: A PLACE BETWEENBY HENRY TROTTER
Africa is a Country radio explores the musical history of Cape Town with New School professor Sean Jacobs and filmmaker Dylan Valley. And after listening to this conversation, you want to dig into the complex and intersecting histories of the Mother City, be sure to pick up a copy of Henry Trotter’s Cape Town: A Place Between, the first book in our Intimate Geographies Series.
Black Women Radicals has put together a great list of 16 Black feminist archive projects. From hip-hop, to visual art, to Caribbean history, there are so many fantastic projects to explore.
“While the cost of living continues to rise and older generations of activists fade away — making it harder for free-spirited artistry to exist — we gather tightly to embrace Ferlinghetti’s cathedral in all its dusty homeliness and independent boldness on the corner of Columbus and Broadway.” The literary world is mourning the loss of poet, publisher, and founder of City Lights books, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Read remembrances from SF Gate, the New York Times, The Nation, and from his community at City Lights. And, of course, spend some time with his poetry.
The New York Times‘ George Gene Gustines writes about a new graphic novel, Muhammad Ali, Kinshasa 1974, that “retells the events of the legendary heavyweight title fight in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
KING SHAKA BY LUKE W. MOLVER
Black History Month may be coming to a close, but amazing books by Black authors and stories of Black heroes and history are important any time of year. CLMP has put together a reading list of books and magazines from small presses that celebrate this history. We’ve got two titles on the list— The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, which uses fiction to explore the history of Zimbabwe, and King Shaka by Luke Molver, a graphic novel from our Story Press Africa imprint that explores the life of legendary Zulu leader King Shaka.
And finally, Tina Jordan at the New York Times looks at the history of literary games and puzzles in the paper’s pages. “In this era of crossword puzzles, Words With Friends and The Times’s own Spelling Bee, it’s fascinating to look back at just how long the paper has been printing word games and literary quizzes.” You can test your book knowledge with a quiz from 1989.
It’s Black History Month! To celebrate, here’s a quick read about Toni Morrison‘s time as a Random House editor, a crash course on the wonderful Zora Neale Hurston, a coder making stories by authors of color more accessible to young readers through the app We Read Too, and a new book highlighting the contributions of Black creators, publishers, and booksellers to thecomics industry.
It was also Valentine’s Day this week, and we’re blaming Geoffrey Chaucer. (This article also wins the award for the most brutal subtitle of all time).
In celebrity book news, Bill Gates’ new book on climate change came out this week, basketball star Chris Paul is releasing a memoir in September, and Mark Hamill (aka Luke Skywalker) has a new Dr.Seuss-esque children’s book about masking up in COVID times. All proceeds will go to World Central Kitchen. Celebrity magician Wayne Alan is releasing a book detailing the history of magic shows in the White House, and the Navy SEAL who oversaw the Bin Laden raid and the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips is publishing a children’s book about simple life lessons. The cast for the new Hulu adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends was just announced, and Reese Witherspoon is starting an Instagram cooking show called #EatTheBook, where she’ll cook recipes inspired by her book club picks.
This month, we were proud to release Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s award-winning novel The Theory of Flight in North America. When it was released in South Africa, the novel was awarded the Barry Ronge Fiction Prize. We are pleased to give even more readers the opportunity to read this beautiful book.
This sweeping epic explores decades of family and national history through the lives of a group of interconnected characters. Through the country remains unnamed in the novel, its history closely mirrors that of Zimbabwe, and the plot centers on Genie whose family and friends struggle to come to terms with her impending death. This novel sketches, through the lives of a few families and the fate of a single patch of ground, a nation’s history – from colonial occupation through the freedom struggle, to the devastation wrought by the sojas, the HIV virus, and The Man Himself. At turns mysterious and magical, but always honest, The Theory of Flight explores the many ways we lose those we love before they die.
The novel has earned praise from Bustle, Full Stop Magazine, and Publishers Weekly where it earned a starred review. Tsitsi Dangarembga, author of Nervous Conditions and the Booker-Prize-shortlisted novel, This Mournable Body also named the book one of her ten favorites in this list at Vulture magazine. (And you can read an essay at LitHub on how Zimbabwean authors like Tsitsi have inspired Siphiwe’s work.)
We chatted with Siphiwe about her work, the difficulties of defining a book like The Theory of Flight, and how fiction helps us “maneuver the often rocky and complicated terrains of the past and present.”
We’re pleased to release two great new books this month: Divine Justice, by Joanne Hichens and The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu. Both books are available now through your favorite bookseller (but we’d love it if you chose an independent bookstore!) Continue reading “New Releases This Month”
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.
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.
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 TheTheory 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”
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.
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.
In Catalyst news, 
First up, some big news in the Catalyst world this week: 