Hot from the Press
#ReadingAfrica Week 2022 is officially here! Kicking off this Sunday, December 4, our sixth annual celebration of all things African literature is shaping up to be our biggest and best yet. We’ve worked so hard to bring together an amazing line-up for you all, including three virtual events, several written roundtables, guest blogs, daily social media challenges, and more!
This year’s live virtual events are:
- Sunday December 4th at 2pm EST — Who is African: Place, identity, and belonging in literature, co-hosted with LitNet
- Tuesday December 6th at 2pm EST– Behind the Scenes: African filmmakers & writers on interplay and adaptation, co-hosted with the James Currey Society
- Saturday December 10th at 2pm EST– The young reader: African children’s literature, co-hosted with World Kid Lit
You can register here for these three amazing events and download our social media challenges here. And make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay in the know about all things #ReadingAfrica! And don’t forget to use the hashtags #ReadingAfrica and #ReadingAfricaWeek all week long December 4-10 to highlight your favorite African reads. You can also find books from several of our panelists at our Bookshop.org shop. For authors whose work isn’t available in the US, be sure to check out African Books Collective!
In other Catalyst news, we’re thrilled to see two of our books on this year’s 100 Notable African Books list from Brittle Paper! Huge congrats to the creators of All Rise: Resistance and Rebellion in South Africa and Niki Daly of On My Papa’s Shoulders for the huge honor. And another huge congratulations to Yewande Omotoso, whose novel An Unusual Grief also made the list. We’re proud to be the US publisher for Yewande’s novel Bom Boy.
Niki Daly is on fire! On top of that Brittle Paper honor, Fly High, Lolo, the fourth book in Niki’s beloved Lolo series, was named one of the Best Books of 2022 by School Library Journal, and On My Papa’s Shoulders was awarded a South African Literary Award for Children’s Literature!
The reviews have also been rolling in for our upcoming middle grade novel Pearl of the Sea. Publishers Weekly calls it “a winning story of friendship, nature, and trust,” Foreword Reviews says it’s a “vibrant coastal coming-of-age story with secrets, monsters, and thrills throughout” and Kirkus dubbed it “a heartfelt tale.” Check it some sample pages and pre-order here. Pearl of the Sea is available January 31 in North America and March 1 in South Africa.
And ICYMI, read this great feature from Open Country Mag about Pearl of the Sea and our other forthcoming graphic novel, KARIBA, available in June.
In other news…
Lady Chatterley’s Lover got the Netflix treatment and Tess Gunty’s The Rabbit Hutch is headed to the big screen. Book-banning aficionado DeSantis is… publishing a book, and, perfectly timed. We Need Diverse Books has kickstarted the #BooksSaveLives initiative to help schools and libraries get banned books. Merriam-Webster’s 2022 Word of the Year is gaslighting, and 150 agents have backed the striking HarperCollins employees. Astra Magazine was, regrettably, short-lived.
#ReadingAfrica roundup
In this section we share news from African and African diaspora writers in honor of our annual #ReadingAfrica Week—which is THIS WEEK Sunday December 4 through Saturday December 10! Check out “Hot from the Press” above for #ReadingAfrica events and more.
Congrats to all the winners of this year’s Morland Writing Scholarships and the 2022 African Writers Awards! In other awards news, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki became the first African born Black writer to win the World Fantasy Award, Mara Menzies was shortlisted for Scotland’s National Book Awards, and Nétonon Noël Ndjékéry was awarded the Prix Hors Concours. Take a few minutes to check out this fun FIFA World Cup themed tournament of African writers and poets.
From the Backlist
In honor of #ReadingAfrica Week (and a certain surprise coming for you this week!!), today we’re throwing it back to our first anthology from Short Story Day Africa which features 21 African writers from across the continent, including the 2022 Caine Prize winning story “Five Years Next Sunday” by Idza Luhumyo (just published in Danish in Weekendavisen) and the 2022 Nommo Award shortlisted story “Shelter” by Mbozi Haimbe.
Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa
Edited by Jason Mykl Snyman, Karina M. Szczurek, and Rachel Zadok
Featuring stories by: MacSmart Ojiludu (Nigeria); Kanyinsola Olorunnisola (Nigeria); Najwa Bin Shatwan (Libya); Nadia Ahidjo-Iya (Cameroon); Innocent Ilo (Nigeria); Melusi Nkomo (Zimbabwe); Victor Forna (Sierra Leone); Nicholas Dawn (South Africa); Genna Gardini (South Africa); Philisiwe Twijnstra (South Africa); Doreen Anyango (Uganda); Masiyaleti Mbewe (Zambia); Julia Louw (South Africa); Liam Brickhill (Zimbabwe); Jacob M’hango (Zambia); Gomolemo Mogotsi (Botswana); Mbozi Haimbe (Zambia); Idza Luhmyo (Kenya); Alithnayn Abdulkareem (Nigeria); Yefon Isabelle (Cameroon); Edwin Okolo (Nigeria).
This genre-spanning anthology explores the many ways that we grow, adapt, and survive in the face of our ever-changing global realities. In these evocative, often prescient, stories, new and emerging writers from across Africa investigate many of the pressing issues of our time: climate change, pandemics, social upheaval, surveillance, and more.
From a post-apocalyptic African village in Innocent Ilo’s “Before We Die Unwritten,” to space colonization in Alithnayn Abdulkareem’s “Static,” to a mother’s attempt to save her infant from a dust storm in Mbozi Haimbe’s “Shelter,” Disruption illuminates change around and within, and our infallible capacity for hope amidst disaster. Facing our shared anxieties head on, these authors scrutinize assumptions and invent worlds that combine the fantastical with the probable, the colonial with the dystopian, and the intrepid with the powerless, in stories recognizing our collective future and our disparate present.
Disruption is the 2021 anthology from Short Story Day Africa, a non-profit organization established to develop and share the diversity of Africa’s voices through publishing and writing workshops.
Read excerpts from Disruption at Johannesburg Review of Books, Literary Hub, and World Literature Today.
Praise for Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa
“50 Notable African Books of 2021″—Brittle Paper
“60 Best Books of 2021″—Open Country Magazine
“A must-read. This book features a number of brilliant speculative pieces by African authors. […] Learn their names, spread the word.” —Lightspeed Magazine
“[A] wonderfully diverse, often grim portrait of a world moving toward ruin or rebirth.” —Locus Magazine
“An electric collection of stories that seethes with horror and beauty.” — Lauren Beukes, author of The Shining Girls and Afterland
A “brilliant and diverse collection of stories”…. [Disruption] carries so much soul. Many of the stories are so visceral they played like a movie, a testament to the writers’ adroit understanding of how worldbuilding works.” —Isele Magazine