While our authors make us special, without SarahBelle Selig and Izak de Vries as part of our team, Catalyst Press would be missing a huge part of its heart and soul. While our U.S. team members keep things humming a world away, these two have made us a truly international company. Whether through their connections with South Africa’s literary community, or with the kind of personal touch that only comes from a face-to-face meeting, they have helped build Catalyst South Africa into, what we hope, is a part of the local reading scene. We couldn’t do any of this without them. Ashawnta Jackson, a U.S.-based Catalyst team member, chatted to the pair about their work.
SarahBelle Selig and Izak de Vries
SarahBelle, can you tell us a bit about your role at Catalyst? What is the South African branch up to?
Specifically in South Africa, I’ve got a bit of a liaison role, which means I’m working face to face with our local authors, our South African distributor, and the many great booksellers and educators we’re connected with here. Izak and I also tag team our local publicity: everything from getting reviews for our authors in South African media, to getting them on panels at festivals.
We’re having so much fun at Catalyst South Africa these days! We’ve ramped up our events, from book launches and comics workshops, to author readings at local school libraries and even a beach cleanup. We hosted a booth at the inaugural Comic Con Cape Town to show off our amazing line up of African graphic novels and to connect with readers. We’re busy prepping the release of our first ever Afrikaans book for kids, and we’re actively building out our relationships with local nonprofits, bookstores, and schools. The Catalyst office is definitely the most active here that it’s ever been, I’d say.
Welcome back to this fabulous conversation between literary agents Raphaël Thierry and Emma Shercliff! Yesterday, Raphaël and Emma discussed their journeys towards agenting, the contract “just behind the book”, and protecting author rights. If you missed it, catch up here before tuning into Part 2 below!
Let’s dive back in!
Emma Shercliff
Raphaël Thierry
Raphaël Thierry
I would be very curious to ask you, Emma, how do you just set up a relation with a writer? Are you always solicited? Or are you just trying to catch up with a writer when you met him or her and you have this opportunity? How do you create this link, because the connection you have with the writer is extremely important in your work as agent. I’m very curious to know how this relation is set up for you.
Emma Shercliff
So when I started, of course I set up a submissions process for my agency. But I thought initially, it would be about me going out and looking for people and really seeking out writers. And that certainly was the case to begin with. But now, many of the writers that I represent have come to me through personal recommendations from other writers. And that always feels like such a huge compliment, when an author that you have worked with and published yourself feels that you would make a good agent and then recommends you to somebody that they are either mentoring or know, so that’s been a very productive source of new writers for me. And there are other ways.
Recently, I approached an author that I heard on a podcast, a Ukrainian writer actually, and I just thought this woman is amazing, I want to reach out to her and so I did that. And another conversation I’ve had recently was with an author from a particular African country that I don’t yet represent any authors from. And I have been looking for a woman from that country for a long time. And so I reached out to her. So sometimes you can have in mind ideas of the type of writing and perhaps sometimes the geographical region and then if somebody happens to come across your radar from those areas, then your ears prick up. Is that the same for you, Raphaël?
I don’t want to sound a bit naïve but if I don’t feel confident enough with someone I’m working with, then how can a book find its way and how can I find perspective for this book?
Raphaël Thierry
It’s not completely the same but speaking about co-agenting that’s a very interesting take because I think everyone doesn’t know but as agents we cannot reach every part of the world in every language, so it’s very precious to cultivate these good relations and collaborations with other agents with whom we can collaborate on some projects and propose some books which might fit within the territory or language or country where they are more able to grasp the publishing industry and the publisher’s interest. And I feel as an agent, the first part of the work is maybe to have humility. And rather than doing everything ourselves, sometimes it’s better to build up strong relations in this industry.
And I really point out the industry aspect, because it’s also a business and within a business people are always central. And I don’t want to sound a bit naïve but if I don’t feel confident enough with someone I’m working with, then how can a book find its way and how can I find perspective for this book? And so it’s essential to have this close relation you were speaking about, this recommendation you got from writers, and that’s so heartwarming, but it’s also the proof that you’re professionally respected, and that you’re dealing properly with books, and that writers recognise it. And that’s very important, because the centre of their work as writers is to write. And the centre of your work as an agent is to deal with rights. And that’s essential, to be extremely clear on each position and each work, I guess.
Emma Shercliff
The experience I had at Cassava Republic was so formative for me in that respect, in that I loved the fact that we were so focused. As you’ll know, like anybody in the publishing world – and I was a publisher for 20 years – you’d go to an event or meet somebody socially and when you say you’re a publisher, then someone will say, Oh, my aunt’s best friend’s cousin’s daughter has written a book, can you look at it? Or, my next-door neighbour has written a children’s book, can you get her published? And I loved the fact that at Cassava Republic, I would always say, oh, does this writer have any African connection? And if the answer was no, then I would say, Oh, I’m sorry, you need to find someone else. I really loved that focus. You know, it’s a shift, it’s helpful.
So when I started the agency with this focus on authors from Norfolk and Suffolk, and then authors broadly from underrepresented backgrounds, I did state specifically on my website as I launched that I was looking for authors in Africa, the Middle East, and Ukraine, because they all geographical territories in which I’ve worked and that I feel very comfortable navigating. It’s helpful for authors, and it’s helpful for me. So I think that you’re right, you can’t take on the whole world or represent everyone. So being focused, particularly at smaller agencies like yours and mine, I think that’s really important. And of course, you’re undoubtedly going to feel more passionate about authors coming from those areas, or with those interests that you wish to represent.
One other thing I wanted to say, Raphaël, just talking about territories and rights, is that so much of the way I operate as an agent has been informed by the way I worked as a publisher and my experience as a publisher. So for example, I always reserve rights for African authors. If I’m taking on an author who has a link to say, Kenya or South Africa or Nigeria, I would always reserve rights for Africa, and then sell very specifically to publishers in those countries. That’s one of my agency commitments and I take it very seriously.
Welcome to The Spark, our mini newsletter featuring news from Catalyst and beyond. If you’d like to subscribe to the full size version, click here. Same great news, in a larger size. Anyway, onwards!
We got some wonderful awards news this week for one of the authors from Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa! Mbozi Haimbre was named a finalist for the African Speculative Fiction Society’s Nommo Award for Best Short Story for her story, “Shelter.” We are so thrilled for Mbozi, and hope you will join us in celebrating! Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa is the 2021 anthology from Short Story Day Africa, a nonprofit based in Cape Town, South Africa on a mission to elevate new and emerging African authors. And it’s available now worldwide!
Two Catalyst author events we’ve been waiting for have almost arrived! On Sunday May 22 at 1pm EST, join Richard Conyngham and Tumi Mamabolo, the author and one of the illustrators behind All Rise: Resistance and Rebellion in South Africa, for “Archives and Storytelling,” a virtual event hosted by Interference Archive. The pair will be discussing how archives can be an important tool for creative storytelling, and how they used them to bring the stories in All Rise to life. The event is free, but registration is required. Sign up here, and don’t forget to pre-order your copy of the book which hits shelves next week!
To learn more about the creation of All Rise, check out this Q&A with the author, just released this week.
Hannes Barnard is a Catalyst Press trailblazer. Though we’ve published several books in translation before, his novel, Halley’s Comet, is our very first one for young readers. Books are a way to explore the world, and we hope that readers—especially young readers—take that journey through our books.
And what a way to start!
Halley’s Comet, written and translated by Hannes, is a powerful and emotional coming-of-age story set in the last years of South African apartheid. Kirkus called it “a thrilling, tension-filled story of friendship, love, radicalism, and justice;” World Kid Lit praised it writing, “This YA story is a crossover novel that is bound to stay with readers – young and old – long after they finish it;” and Sonia Patel, author of William C. Morris Award finalist Rani Patel In Full Effect, writes “Hannes Barnard delivers an indelible exploration of the importance of empathy in seeing color without seeing inferiority.” In short, this is a truly great book.
The novel centers on Pete, a white 16-year-old schoolboy. Pete lives a relatively sheltered life, primarily concerned with girls and rugby— until one January night changes everything. Thrust together with two complete strangers—Petrus, a Black farmworker’s son and Sarita, an Indian shopkeeper’s daughter—the trio form an era-defying friendship that is sparked by a shared secret. And when anti-Apartheid revolutionaries set their sights on the town, it will change the course of the three young people’s lives forever.
We talked with Hannes about his work, how he created characters with kindness and empathy, how reading translated literature can “drive out preconceptions and open our eyes and minds,” his advice for young writers, and much more.
We’ve changed our weekly literary news roundup just a bit for the new year. From now on, you’ll find tips on #ReadingAfricaall year round, great titles to check out from our backlist, and of course, other bookish news from across the internet. Think of this as a mini newsletter (for the regular-sized serving of our newsletter, subscribe here). Happy reading!
What a day!Both Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde were born on this day (February 18). Here are a few places to learn more about these two influential authors:
Fall is in the air here (translation: I’m already cold). As the calendar pages start falling away on 2021, we thought it’d be a good time to give you all a little sneak peek at our upcoming titles— many of which are available for pre-order.
We’re excited to add more books from one of our favorite children’s authors, Niki Daly, our very first young adult book in translation, and a new addition to our growing list of graphic novels. In addition to those, we think there’s something for just about every kind of reader in our 2022 catalog. Continue reading “What’s New in 2022”
