In Catalyst news, Africa Access Review reviewed two Catalyst titles last week: Here Comes Lolo by Niki Daly, and Small Mercies by Bridget Krone. Give them a read! We also love seeing our Catalyst authors producing new work. On New Frame, Unmaking Grace author Barbara Boswell chats about being a black woman novelist, the joy of writing, and her new book, And Wrote My Story Anyway: Black South African Women’s Novels as Feminism. If you haven’t read Unmaking Grace yet, you can buy it here!
Some of literature’s leading ladies rocked the headlines this week! This year’s JCB Prize longlist was majority female (and remarkably diverse), with women taking six of ten titles. Huge congratulations to Zambian author and ReadSA nonprofit founder Zukiswa Wanner for being one of three people awarded the Goethe Medal this week, for her commitment to international cultural exchange. Meet the woman behind that Normal People adaptation we’re all obsessed with, and the amazing Baltimore teacher who publishes student novels written by her Black high school freshman students. In the UK, Margaret Atwood, Zadie Smith, and more joined in on the Extinction Rebellion protests this week, speaking out against the right-wing think-tanks pushing climate change denial.
In the U.S., the race to acquire Big 5 house Simon & Schuster is ramping up, with Bertelsmann reportedly joining the fight. Bertelsmann is the owner of Penguin Random House, already the largest publishing house in the world created by a merger of Penguin and Random House back in 2013. HarperCollins is also interested in the acquisition.
I’m always impressed, and somewhat suspicious, when someone tells me they finished the entirety of Karl Ove Knausgaard‘s The Struggle (I certainly have not). Here’s an oddly convincing piece from Jade Wootton at Electric Literature comparing the novelist to everyone’s favorite love-to-hate social media mogul Kim Kardashian.
Check out this gorgeous illustrated version of Gertrude Stein’s Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and read the story behind their romance. Washington Post critic and grandfather of two, Michael Dirda, writes on the best 1980’s and 90’s books for children (and their parents), and Sandra Schmuhl Long gives a different perspective on an old favorite, To Kill a Mockingbird. And speaking of Atticus Fitch, the Alabama town that inspired the classic just voted in its first Black mayor.
In celebrity news, Dev Patel stars in a new David Copperfield film, Channing Tatum spent lockdown writing a children’s book (and posted the most Channing Tatum announcement ever about it), and Trump books won’t stop selling – so publishers won’t stop pushing them. The world lost actor Chadwick Boseman last week to a several-year fight with colon cancer. After his celebrated role as T’Challa, King of Wakanda in Marvel’s Black Panther, Boseman became a hero in his own right, teaching Black children to celebrate their blackness and calling for more Black heroes in mainstream film and literature, a mission we couldn’t agree with more.
Read this gorgeous, somber reflection on the crisis in Beirut told through a series of letters between Beirut and New York. Then, head to LitHub for repetition as a literary tool, the doomed life of a muse, and the Japanese poet and essayist Kamo no Chōmei who already nailed that quarantine essay we’re all trying to write… eight centuries ago.
South African rugby captain Siya Kolisi is making headlines again, but this time in the book world: his wife Rachel spoke out on Instagram against a reprint of an unauthorized biography on Siya, released by South African publisher Jonathan Ball last year. Now, Jonathan Ball is saying it has no intentions of taking the reprint off the shelves.
It’s National Book Week next week here in South Africa, and there are a number of exciting virtual events – follow their Facebook page to stay tuned! This year’s virtual ComicCon Africa is also coming up, and illustrator Jenny Frison is making waves with her Wonder Woman official event posters. Catalyst founder Jessica and I attended last year’s South African Book Fair here in Johannesburg (where I was lucky enough to meet one of our brilliant new authors, Sifiso Mzobe, whose award-winning novel Young Blood will be making its North American debut with us next April!). Check out what the fair is doing this year to take advantage of the virtual space, including collaborations with book fairs in Kenya and Nigeria. And while you’re reading up on the pan-African book world, check out this piece on Africa’s thriving literary magazine industry.
In more representation news, learn about free little libraries and book subscription boxes that are helping Americans decolonize their bookshelves, and the new Marvel comics project bringing Native American voices to the foreground. Then read these fascinating – and hopeful – pieces on the history of Nigerian queer literature and the future of Indian queer literature.
And finally, coming in first for the weirdest news to grace my feed this week: have you heard of this inn in Tokyo that will simulate editorial deadlines for you so you can finally finish that novel you’ve been putting off?