We’re excited to release The Rising Tide, the second book in Helen Brain’s Fiery Spiral trilogy, a dystopian fantasy series for young adult readers. The Rising Tide continues the saga of sixteen-year-old Ebba den Eeden, who has spent her life in a bunker deep within Cape Town’s Table Mountain. She, and the other inhabitants of the bunker, have grown up believing the world “above” was left uninhabitable due to nuclear war. When Ebba is suddenly released from the bunker, she discovers that everything she knew—about the world above and her own life—was wrong. Now shouldering an immense responsibility, Ebba must use her power to stop a second apocalypse. She must listen to her instincts, even if it means destroying the things she holds most dear. Who can she trust to help stop the second “Calamity,” now just days away? Who will betray her? Continue reading “Out Now: The Rising Tide by Helen Brain”
Q&A with Helen Brain
Note: This post is originally from November 2019. We’re sharing it again because we’re excited to release the second book in Helen’s trilogy—The Rising Tide—on July 13, 2021. Learn more about the book, and order your copy here. You can also enter to win a copy of The Rising Tide at Goodreads. The giveaway runs through July 6.
We’re so excited to add more books for young readers to our catalog. It has always been a part of who we are. We recognize the importance of giving kids and young adults the tools they need to be readers for life. One of the most important tools is giving them books that speak to them and their experiences. Books that value their voices and their concerns. It’s one of the many reasons we’re so proud to publish The Thousand Steps by Helen Brain.
The Thousand Steps is the first in Helen’s futuristic Fiery Spiral trilogy, and is the story of 16-year-old Ebba who has lived her entire life in a bunker deep within Cape Town’s Table Mountain. When she is suddenly elevated from the bunker, she finds that everything she knew about her life, and the world “above,” was wrong. Now shouldering the immense responsibility of her new life, Ebba must fight to save her friends still trapped in the bunker and facing execution any day. Helen’s book deftly explores race, class, and climate change while telling a story that will captivate young readers. School Library Journal praised the book writing, “This novel will draw readers in with its high stakes and well-developed characters.”
We chatted with Helen about her work, why she loves science fiction, and her advice for young writers. The Thousand Steps is out January 3. Continue reading “Q&A with Helen Brain”
This Week in Literary News: Week of January 3
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 Thousand Steps
There is a lot that has to happen behind the scenes before we can get our books to readers. Edits, rewrites, marketing, event planning, design—it’s nothing if not exciting! While our author Q&As and From the Editor’s Desk features generally cover many of those (and if you don’t know what those are, all will be revealed if you subscribe to our newsletter!), but we focus on cover design a bit less often. That changes today! We talked extensively with artist Karen Vermeulen last year about her work, and now we’re chatting with Karen again about just one cover— the upcoming YA sci-fi novel The Thousand Steps by Helen Brain.
The Thousand Steps is the first in Helen Brain’s Fiery Spiral Trilogy, and is a dystopic sci-fi Young Adult novel set in Cape Town in 2055. After spending her entire life living in a bunker deep inside of Table Mountain, 16-year-old Ebba is released when the truth of her lineage is revealed. While learning to navigate the unfamiliar “Above,” Ebba must fight for her survival, and that of her friends still below. The Fiery Spiral is an eco-feminist trilogy that examines how class, race, and social identity are foundational to the ways in which society is organized and power wielded. It releases on January 7.
You can learn more about Karen and her work at her website, Instagram, and Twitter.
Continue reading “Designing the Cover for The Thousand Steps”