The impact from the devastating fires across the Western United States has extended to bookstores and publishers, Publishers Weekly reports. “This is a very scary time to be a bookseller and a small business owner,” says Kit Steinaway, the programs manager at the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC). The article notes some ways that you can help, including by donating to BINC, an organization that provides aids to booksellers during fire season. If you’d like information about other organizations that can use your help, this article at The Cut offers some suggestions.
This month is National Translation Month, and we’re proud to publish the English-language translations of several fantastic books. National Translation Month falls right after Women in Translation Month, so if you’re looking to read globally, there have been so many great suggestions over the past two months. Over at CLMP, there’s been two round-ups of books from indie publishers, and we’re in both! Sacrificed by Chanette Paul (translated by Elsa Silke) has a spot on the Women in Translation list, while The Wall by Max Annas, translated by Rachel Hildebrandt Reynolds is on the National Translation Month list. And speaking of Max, his latest thriller, The Farm, also translated by Rachel, released earlier this week! Congratulations, Max!
Max gets double congratulations this week, as his German-language thriller, Morduntersuchungskommission was named the winner of the 2020 Cologne Crime Award. And in other award news, the Booker Prize has released its shortlist. Of the six nominated shortlisted books for the prestigious award, four are from debut authors, four are women-authored, and two are by African authors, including Tsitsi Dangarembga’s This Mournable Body. Aside from being fans of her work, Tsitsi is special here at Catalyst since she graciously provided a blurb for our forthcoming release The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu. Tsitsi called Siphiwe’s debut “A dazzling novel of delicate and astonishing magic.” The Theory of Flight is out in January.
You’ve likely seen the video of Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper in Central Park. After Cooper asked a white fellow park-goer to remove her dog from a dog-free area, she called the police falsely claiming he had threatened her. Cooper, a former comic book editor, has taken lessons from his story to the page with the release of his graphic novel It’s a Bird. The book “tells the story of a young Black birdwatcher gifted with a pair of binoculars that allow him to learn the stories of Amadou Diallo, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd.” The book is part of DC Comics’ new digital anthology series, Represent!, which showcases underrepresented comic creators. The company has made the first chapter of the graphic novel free.
“What is lost when Nadine Gordimer’s personal library accidentally winds up in boxes on the street?” Visit the Paris Review to read an essay by Rosa Lyster on the lost library of South African author Nadine Gordimer, and what we’ve lost (or maybe gained?) by not having those materials. Gordimer also makes an appearance in this excellent article at New Frame about the life of South African human rights lawyer, George Bizos, who died on September 9. Of Bizos, Gordimer once wrote of him that he was a “South African civil rights lawyer of international standing, a devastating cross-examiner of apartheid’s authorised torturers and killers … When George Bizos won a case, it was not just a professional victory, it was an imperative of a man whose deep humanity directs his life.”
And while you’re at New Frame, be sure to check out this great feature on Unmaking Grace author, Barbara Boswell. Barbara is celebrating the release of her latest book, And I Wrote My Story Anyway: Black South African Women’s Novels as Feminism. Barbara also discusses her novel Unmaking Grace (published in South Africa as Grace), a poignant story of a woman’s quest to end the cycle of violence in her life, an issue that has touched Barbara’s own life. Of the book Barbara says, “I wanted to understand what makes a man do such violent things. I still don’t. So I drew on memory and from there it took on a life of its own.” You can also read more about Barbara’s life, and how she used the library and books as a way to escape a violent home in this beautiful essay in the Sunday Times (South Africa).
Last week, Catalyst founder Jessica Powers, joined Atlas Book Club founder Bunmi Emenanjo to talk about how to bring more diverse reading into your child’s homeschooling curriculum. You can watch their discussion here. And if you’d like to use Catalyst books in your homeschool or everyday reading, make sure to visit our resource page for discussion questions, read-alongs, activities, and more for our kids, young adult, and crossover titles.
And finally, huge congratulations to Joanne Hichens. Her memoir Death and the After Parties (Karavan Press) just had a cover reveal. Head over to Karavan Press to see it. We’re so proud to be the North American publisher for another one of Joanne’s books, Divine Justice, the first in her Rae Valentine series. Rae is a tough, funny, flawed character balancing her demons with her new career as a private investigator. When she’s hired to find a set of missing diamonds, she finds herself deep into a dangerous world of right-wing extremism and in the fight of her life. Divine Justice is out in January.
