Karina Author, Book

Karavan Press title: In Other Stories 2026 edited by Kerry Hammerton

IN OTHER STORIES 2026
AN ANTHOLOGY OF FLASH FICTION AND NON-FICTION
Edited by Kerry Hammerton

‘I wanted to include at least twenty-six flashes (to match the year) and ended up accepting twenty-seven. It was a delight to discover a variety of surprising and interesting stories in the submissions. A flash about a writer contemplating their own funeral, one about the demise of Trump, others on the topics of cancer and beloved trees being felled. There are erotic stories and stories about marital sex, baboon encounters, knitting, historical reflections, neighbours and the patriarchy.’
— Kerry Hammerton

Contributors

Soline Lippe de Thoisy | Margot Saffer | Michelle A. Meyer | Nontobeko Mtshali | Chumisa Ndakisa | Stephen Devereux | Eduard Burle | Claude Naudé | Karina M. Szczurek | Chantal Stewart | Tiah Marie Beautement | Kim Hasert | Kerry Hammerton | Liesl Jobson | Sarah Buchner | Mthobisi Myeni | Lee-Anne Gaertner | Karen Jennings | Siphosethu Siwaphiwe Zazela | Stephen Symons | Gabrielle Mudiwa | Gina Kukard | Olwanda Saphokazi Majozi | Busisiwe Mahlangu | Nadia Kamies | Tiisetso Tlelima | Anne Schlebusch

Publication date: November 2026

ISBN: 978-1-0671781-9-2

Karina Author, Book

Karavan Press title: Starlorn by Stephen Symons

but death always sharpens back
into focus on waking—
that incessant tidal wash
of remembering and forgetting

STARLORN traverses the North African campaign of World War II and post-war apartheid South Africa as it follows the unlikely bond between an irreverent Luftwaffe fighter pilot, Hans Müller, and a black South African prisoner of war, Jacob Makwetu. Spanning decades and continents, Starlorn is a mediation on how their relationship becomes intertwined in ways that skirt life and death, divisions of race, ideology and navigating the aftermath of war.

ISBN 978-1-0671781-1-6

Publication date: November 2026

Stephen Symons was born in Cape Town in 1966. He has published award-winning poetry and short fiction in local and international journals, magazines, and anthologies, and he has authored five poetry collections and two collections of short stories. Symons holds a PhD in History (University of Pretoria) and an MA in Creative Writing (University of Cape Town). He was shortlisted for the 2015 Hudson Prize for Poetry (USA), the 2017 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry, 2017 Ingrid Jonker Prize, and 2023 South African Literary Awards. He won the Red Wheelbarrow Prize for Poetry in 2022. His fifth collection, The Algebra of Insignificance, was published by Karavan Press in 2024 and won the Olive Schreiner Prize for poetry in 2026. He lives with his family in Oranjezicht, Cape Town, where he runs a graphic design studio. Starlorn is his debut novel.

Karina Author, Book

Karavan Press title: The Shadow of Elsewhere by Angie Butler

The Shadow of Elsewhere: A Journey Home is a tender yet unsparing account of two women, their lives interwoven by one woman’s yearning for Africa and the other’s attempt to escape it.

Thandiwe Sebata was born in Zimbabwe and died alone in an Oxfordshire hospital. Broken by her country, she jumps the border into South Africa and becomes stateless, stripped of identity and hounded by authorities. An unlikely bond forms between her and Angie Butler who is visiting her mother country. Angie’s gesture of goodwill turns Thandiwe’s life into a horrific ordeal of displacement in England, history repeating itself. The Shadow of Elsewhere tells of an impossible fight for justice. It uncovers what it is to be caught between borders, with little chance to hide in no man’s land. And yet, from the dark shadows, light and love outpace the loss in the quest to find home. With all its agonies, Africa calls the two women back, and bewitched, they return, if by no other means, as phantoms, as ghosts.

This story needs to be told, not because it is comfortable, but because it is true. Too many women have suffered in silence, carrying stories the world never hears. Thandiwe’s voice may now be silent, but her words still speak. We owe it to her, and to countless women whose stories remain untold, not to allow fear or shame to bury the truth. Her telling is an act of remembrance, it is an act of courage. Let her story be told.–Zulu Nkululeko

We have to do everything we can to amplify Thandiwe’s voice. We owe it to her to break the silence.–Thenjiwe Kona

Publication date: November 2026
ISBN: 978-1-0671781-7-8

About the author

ANGIE BUTLER was born and raised in Johannesburg, where she worked in film and theatre before moving to London in her mid-twenties. She attained a degree in Sculpture at the City & Guilds of London Art School. She is the author of several books on polar history, including Ice Tracks – Today’s Heroic Age of Polar Adventure, The Quest for Frank Wild, which was turned into a BBC documentary, and co-author of Shackleton’s Critic. Her passion for Antarctica led her to co-founding the expedition travel company Ice Tracks Expeditions and she spent seventeen years travelling to the Arctic and Antarctica. She married the late Royal Academician sculptor James Butler and they have five daughters between them. She lives in England, returning to South Africa several times a year. When she is not writing, she is in her studio in East Sussex. The Shadow of Elsewhere is based on a true story.

Karina Author

Author: Angie Butler

ANGIE BUTLER was born and raised in Johannesburg, where she worked in film and theatre before moving to London in her mid-twenties. She attained a degree in Sculpture at the City & Guilds of London Art School. She is the author of several books on polar history, including Ice Tracks – Today’s Heroic Age of Polar Adventure, The Quest for Frank Wild, which was turned into a BBC documentary, and co-author of Shackleton’s Critic. Her passion for Antarctica led her to co-founding the expedition travel company Ice Tracks Expeditions and she spent seventeen years travelling to the Arctic and Antarctica. She married the late Royal Academician sculptor James Butler and they have five daughters between them. She lives in England, returning to South Africa several times a year. When she is not writing, she is in her studio in East Sussex. The Shadow of Elsewhere is based on a true story.

Karina Author, Book, Event

The Book Revue with Melissa A. Volker

Join Pippa Smith and Melissa A. Volker, author of Chasing Waves: The Rise of Women’s Surfing in South Africa, for tea and scones at Pippa’s house (7 Michael Storer Avenue Constantia) on Wednesday, 28 October 2026. 10AM for tea and 10.30AM for the talk. RSVP to Pippa by email on pippa@thebookrevue.co.za. No cost and books will be on sale. The book traces the rise of women’s surfing in South Africa starting from the days when women were regarded as eye candy at the competitions to the present where we surf the waves more or less equally.

Karina Author, Book, Event

Chasing Waves by Melissa A. Volker to be launched at Exclusive Books Cavendish

We are thrilled to invite you to the launch of Melissa A. Volker’s Chasing Waves: The Rise of Women’s Surfing in South Africa at Exclusive Books Cavendish on 22 October 2026, 5.30 for 6PM. Melissa will be in conversation with journalist and fellow surfer Amy MacIver. Later that evening, Cavendish Mall will also be hosting another sports book event you might be interested in attending. When we heard the news, Melissa said, “We will be like the opening act for a rock band …”

RSVP: Exclusive Books Cavendish

About the book

In 1977, the world surf tour comes to South Africa and the final event of the SA Pro Contest Circuit runs at Umhlanga Rocks, north of Durban. Zigzag Surfing Lifestyle Magazine reports that ‘thousands of young, foxy, tanga-clad ladies’ request autographs from the surfing stars.

Prior to the final matchup between the male surfers, the women’s surf contest, a single heat, paddles out. It is called the ‘comedy interlude’ in the press.

A little over four decades later, Melissa A. Volker watches the women’s surfing Gold Medal Match at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. South African surfer Bianca Buitendag is competing against USA’s Carissa Moore and wins the first ever Olympic surfing medal for South Africa. Thinking about the challenges South African women had to overcome to charge the waves, Melissa wonders who paved the way for Buitendag. She decides to find out. Chasing Waves chronicles the journey and tells the story of the remarkable women who have defined the local surfing scene.

Praise for Chasing Waves

‘In Chasing Waves, Melissa Volker gives voice to the girls and women who shaped South African surfing’s past and continue to make waves in the present. Weaving in reflections on her research journey and her own surfing life, Volker crafts a tapestry detailing the choices and challenges of courageous female surfers since the Sixties. In documenting their life stories, Volker surfaces hidden surf histories and shows how the waves have become more inclusive. This is not only a book for those who surf but also for those who wish to wade into the unfolding history of South African beach cultures.’ – Glen Thompson

‘An extraordinary book. Chasing Waves, and the women surfers it recognises and celebrates, will inspire you both in and out of the water. I know I will return to it often.’ – Qarnita Loxton

And the “rock band” at Cavendish later that evening will be no other than Cheslin Kolbe …

Join us as we sidestep the odds and make literary waves together!