Hot from the Press
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.
Then, on May 26 at 10am PST, Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, author of the award-winning novel The Theory of Flight and The History of Man and recent Windham-Campbell Prize winner, will be appearing as part of the Contemporary African Voices Series hosted by Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign. In the US or Canada? When you register for Siphiwe’s event, you’ll have the opportunity to enter our drawing to win a FREE book set of Siphiwe’s Catalyst books. Look for “Book Draw” on the registration page here!
Catalyst got some big Kirkus Reviews love this week, listing All Rise: Resistance and Rebellion in South Africa as one of their “20 Best Books To Read in May,” and featured Halley’s Comet by Hannes Barnard as one of “5 Works of World Literature for Teen Readers.”
Also this week, Kirkus Reviews called Bridget Krone’s new middle grade book The Cedarville Shop and the Wheelbarrow Swap “a compelling look at friendship and community uplift under harsh circumstances,” and Emerson College released a lovely piece on alumna Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s recent Windham-Campbell Prize win.
This week in literary news
Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is getting the movie treatment, and the first major biography in English about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is hitting shelves in July. Rick Riordan’s beloved Percy Jackson series is getting a (new) reboot and people are pumped about the diverse casting choices. The first full trailer for the new Game of Thrones spinoff has arrived, and so has the trailer for the new Obi-Wan Kenobi spinoff.
Bookstore workers are unionizing, the Vermont Book Awards are back after a two-year hiatus, and this week saw the announcement of the 2022 Barnes & Noble Children’s & YA Book Awards, Sports Book Awards, and Oklahoma Book Awards winners. Baker & Taylor launched a new children’s publishing program.
From the Backlist
Happy Short Story Month! To celebrate, pick up a copy of Reneilwe Malatji’s Love Interrupted!
In her debut collection of short fiction, Reneilwe Malatji invites us into the intimate lives of South African women—their whispered conversations, their love lives, their triumphs and heartbreaks. This diverse chorus of voices recounts misadventures with love, family, and community in powerful stories woven together with anger, politics, and wit. Malatji crafts an engaging collection full of rich, memorable characters who navigate work, love, patriarchy, and racism with thoughtfulness, strength, and humor.
Read an excerpt here, or check out our free Love Interrupted discussion guide.
Praise for Love Interrupted
“The unsentimental style of these stories packs an emotional punch as they examine post-apartheid patriarchy through the eyes of various observant black women characters.” — Foreword Reviews
“Many readers will see themselves in—and find themselves rooting for—the women in Malatji’s solid debut.”— Kirkus Reviews
Reneilwe Malatji was born in South Africa in 1968. She grew up in Turfloop township, in the northern part of South Africa, during the era of apartheid. Her father was an academic and her mother was a school teacher. Reneilwe trained as a teacher and worked as a subject specialist and advisor to provincial education departments. She recently completed a post-graduate diploma in Journalism and an MA in Creative Writing at Rhodes University. She works as a lecturer at the University of Limpopo in South Africa.
