This Week in Literary News: Week of August 22

The book world lost some greats this week, including Leon F. Litwack (a Pulitzer Prize winning U.S. slavery and segregation historian), Eloise Greenfield (a lifelong activist for African American representation in children’s literature), Stephen Oates (author of many bestselling biographies on American Civil War-era leaders), James Loewen (a renowned educator and racial justice activist who wrote the bestselling book Lies My Teacher Told Me), and Jill Murphy (beloved children’s book author and creator of The Worst Witch).

In industry news, PRH’s Penguin Classics imprint has launched its Green Ideas series, with 20 short books about the environment written by activists like Wangari Maathai, Jared Diamond, Rachel Carson, Greta Thunberg, and more, and McNally Jackson is launching McNally Editions, a paperback reprint series for overlooked classics and hidden gems.

Bom Boy

In Catalyst news, two of our authors are making some great appearances elsewhere. Barbara Boswell, author of Unmaking Grace, has a new essay in Brittle Paper. And also in Brittle Paper, a great review of Surfacing: On Being Black and Feminist in South Africa, an anthology (published by Wits University Press) edited by Desiree Lewis and Gabeba Baderoon, which features essays by Barbara and Yewande Omotoso, author of Bom Boy. Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of August 22”

This Week in Literary News: Week of August 8

Divine Justice

In Catalyst news this week, Joanne Hichens’ thriller, Divine Justice was included in Amplitude Magazine’s roundup of books featuring amputees. Amplitude Magazine is a publication “for amputees who want to live more fully.”

“It is in the act of remembrance and re-evaluation of such music that a fuller appreciation of the hidden spaces in this country’s struggle heritage come to light. There is deep history to be excavated. Each in their own way, these albums are psalm songs of the South African jazz holy grail.” Liam Brickhill in Africa is a Country on two recently reissued albums from Matsuli Music, a label focused on South African rarities and jazz classics.

“In the early days of the Cold War, the CIA launched journals, concerts, and co-opted high-profile African-American NGOs.” Head to CrimeReads, to read an excerpt from Susan Williams’ book White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa. Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of August 8”

This Week in Literary News: Week of August 1

Happy Women in Translation Month! This month, we’re celebrating with 20% off of Sacrificed (paperback or ebook), the U.S. debut of bestselling Afrikaans author Chanette Paul, translated by Elsa Silke. Read an excerpt of the thriller that the New York Journal of Books says “places Chanette Paul among the classiest thriller writers of our day.” And be sure check out some of our posts from WIT Months past with tips on how you can add more translated literature— especially by women authors— to your bookshelves!

In celebrity author news, Mel Brooks is penning a memoir at 95, our beloved Mother of Dragons Emilia Clarke has a new superhero comic book (sigh…not about dragons), and Abby Wambach recommends three books on sports and leadership. And in South African author news, 38-year-old Karen Jennings is nominated for a Booker for her novel, The Island. This week, she spoke with The Guardian about repeated rejections and writing while poor.

Romance Writers of America is in trouble again, after having awarded their top prize for religious book of the year to a book about a genocidal, misogynistic maniac—and then promptly rescinding it. And just when we thought they were fixing things up over at RWA

Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of August 1”

Q&A with Elsa Silke

This has been a really great Women in Translation Month so far. We’ve been clicking on that #WiTMonth tag and finding some great reads (because when your to-be-read piles looks like the ones at Catalyst HQ, what’s one more?). There are a wealth of amazing voices all over the world waiting for readers. We have a few of our voices to spotlight this month, so be sure to check out our other posts from this, and WiTMonths past, to read about our authors, our translators, and how you can continue to add more world literature by women to your bookshelves.

We’re continuing our celebration by chatting with translator Elsa Silke. Elsa was the translator for Chanette Paul’s continent-hopping thriller Sacrificed. She is an accomplished translator who has translated works by Ingrid Winterbach, Irma Joubert, and in 2006, she was awarded the SATI/Via Afrika Prize for outstanding translation in fiction for her translation of This Life by Karel Schoeman. We talked to Elsa about her background, translating Sacrificed, and how translated works enrich readers. (Check out this three-chapter excerpt (PDF) from the novel!) Continue reading “Q&A with Elsa Silke”

Q&A with Rachel Hildebrandt Reynolds

We’re celebrating Women in Translation Month by turning the spotlight on the authors and translators who make our books so wonderful. Today, we meet Rachel Hildebrandt. Rachel is a German-language translator and one of the founders of the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative, an organization whose aim is to get world literature—particularly translation—to as wide an audience as possible. Rachel has translated several books, both fiction and non-fiction, including Fade to Black by Zoë Beck and Staying Human by Katharina Stegelmann. Her work with Global Literature in Libraries has provided an amazing resource for readers who want to read globally, and add more women’s voices to their shelves. We’re excited to bring Rachel into the #TeamCatalyst fold, as the translator for our upcoming release The Wall by Max Annas.

We chatted with Rachel about her background, her work, how readers can read more broadly, and how she uses translation to “open up windows and openings where they have been boarded up or forgotten.”

Continue reading “Q&A with Rachel Hildebrandt Reynolds”

Women in Translation Month 2018

It’s that time of year again! Welcome to Women in Translation Month everyone! This is a great time to broaden your reading horizons by adding translated works by women authors and translators to your ‘to read’ stacks! We’ll be doing our part this month with giveaways, interviews, sales, and more! Stay tuned….

If you want to get reading now, we’re offering special prices on all of our titles all summer, but we have a few we want to spotlight:

SacrificedFirst up, Sacrificed by Chanette Paul (translated by Elsa Silke) sends readers on a global journey from South Africa to Belgium as Caz Colijn searches for answers about her mysterious past. Sacrificed is on sale now.

And next, if you want to add even more women to your reading list, check out our special Women’s Voices bundle, which features Sacrificed, short story collection Love Interrupted by Reneilwe Malatji, We Kiss Them with Rain by Futhi Ntshingila (Futhi just recently finished an isiZulu translation of her novel!), and a sneak preview of Bom Boy by Yewande Omotoso, which is out in January.

Follow us @catalyst_press on Twitter and @catalystpress on Instagram to keep up with our #WiTMonth fun, and be sure to tag us if you’re reading one of our titles this month! And click here to read all of our WitMonth posts.

Continue reading “Women in Translation Month 2018”

Women in Translation Month, Futhi Ntshingila

We’ve loved seeing all of the awesome women being spotlighted as part of this year’s Women in Translation Month. Such an incredible and diverse group of writers. We’d like to introduce you to our own writers who are working in translation. You can read our first post here. Continue reading “Women in Translation Month, Futhi Ntshingila”

Women in Translation Month, Chanette Paul

In her post introducing this year’s Women in Translation Month, the event’s creator

People learning about the publishing imbalance in translation between men and women. People seeking out new and diverse literature by women writers from around the world. And people doing it not out of any sense of obligation or guilt, but because there are so many good books that this just becomes a month that focuses their reading.

It’s not just about this August, or next August, but about celebrating diverse literature every day. Expanding just one month’s reading list can open up a world of possibilities, of viewpoints, of ideas. It’s what we hope our books do for our readers, and, more to the point, what we hope reading does. We step outside of our lives every time we open a book, and whether that new experience brings us joy, or thrills, or sadness, or knowledge, we leave with more understanding. Now, more than ever, we need to look towards diverse voices and perspectives in art and listen to their stories.

As part of Women in Translation Month, we’d like to introduce you to some of our authors who are working in translation. First up, Chanette Paul:

Chanette is a South African author of more than 40 books in her native language Afrikaans. On October 10, we are pleased to release her first English-language novel Sacrificed (translated by Elsa Silke), a translation of Offerlam. Sacrificed follows Caz Colijn from the Congo’s diamond mines to Belgium’s finest art galleries, and from Africa’s civil unrest to its deeply spiritual roots in her search for the truth about her trouble past.

Continue reading “Women in Translation Month, Chanette Paul”