Karina Author, Book, Interview

Dragonfly interview with Melissa A. Volker

“I’ve noticed in my own journey in surfing how the ocean empowers women, how surfing teaches women that they are stronger than they ever knew. This inspired my female protagonists: strong women who prevail in the face of waves of adversity. I like to steer away from the usual gender stereotypes, for example, I made the engineer in Shadow Flicker a woman, and the single parent, a man.”

Read the entire interview here: Dragonfly.eco

Dragonfly.eco is a “news site that covers environmental fiction authors’ works via book posts, interviews, reader-submitted reviews, book database, guest posts, and author spotlights. This site raises awareness of the impact and diversity in storytelling around the world that explores climate change and related ecological themes.”

Karina Event, Interview

Salonfestival Cape Town 2020: WOMEN IN A FRACTURED WORLD

WOMEN IN A FRACTURED WORLD with Melissa A. Volker and Dawn Garisch is one of the highlights of the Salonfestival Cape Town 2020:

Melissa and Dawn will talk to John Maytham of CapeTalk about the divisions and connections between humans, animals and the environment in the Rosebank home of writer, editor and publisher Karina M. Szczurek, on Thursday, February 27 at 6pm.

To read more about the Salonfestival, please click here: Sneak Preview of the Salonfestival 2020

Karina Author, Book, Review

Kate Sidley reviews Breaking Milk by Dawn Garisch for the Sunday Times

A small world of deep metaphorical meaning

There is a lot in this slim book – art and science, family and culture, the workings of the heart and of the body

Review by Kate Sidley

On a farm in the Eastern Cape, Kate wakes before dawn, her head and heart in turmoil. She has good reason to worry – today is the day that her baby grandsons, conjoined twins, are to be separated. The risky surgery will take place in London. Kate’s estranged daughter, Jess, has told her definitively, and hurtfully: “Don’t come.”

On the same farm, Nosisi awaits the return of her son, who is undergoing the traditional initiation into manhood. Another anxious mother, another separation, another child at risk.

“So many women down the ages have lain awake in the earth’s great shadow, insomniac over their progeny, their sons and daughters intent on escaping their mothers’ intractable worry,” writes Dawn Garisch in Breaking Milk.

The book takes place over one day, from Kate’s early-morning wake up, and within the confines of the farm and the house she shares with her demented father and his carer. As she ponders her painful choice – respecting her daughter’s wishes, or rushing to be at her side – she must continue to take care of business. Once a microbiologist geneticist working on embryos in a fertility lab, she is now the creator of prize-winning goat’s cheese…

Continue reading: Sunday Times

Karina Author, Book, Review

LitNet’s Yolanda Wessels reviews Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker

Shadow Flicker on Muizenberg BeachShadow flicker vertel die storie van Kate Petersen wat leef vir haar werk, veral omdat haar persoonlike lewe ’n gemors is ná ’n lewensveranderende gebeurtenis. Sy vertrek na St Francisbaai in die Oos-Kaap, waar sy die boere moet oorreed om hul grond beskikbaar te stel vir die ontwikkeling van hernubare kragopwekking. Dit is haar keuse om nie haar baas in te lig dat sy terugkeer na die plek waar haar probleme ontstaan het nie – ’n tragedie wat steeds by haar spook en die oorsaak van haar paniekaanvalle is.

Hier ontmoet sy vir Dr Matthew Sykes, die dorp se veearts, wat steeds in rou is oor die ontydige dood van sy omgewingsgoedgesinde vrou. Alhoewel sy geensins beplan het om emosioneel betrokke te raak nie, ontwikkel dié twee spoedig ’n sagte plek vir mekaar. Ongelukkig is die pad nie net met rose besaai nie en behalwe vir die vyandigheid wat in die kusdorp uitbroei, word Kate die slagoffer van inwoners met verskuilde agendas…

Continue reading: LitNet

Karina Author, Book, Review

Beryl Eichenberger reviews Breaking Milk by Dawn Garisch for the Woman Zone Book Club

Breaking_Milk_Dawn_Garisch_COVER_SMALL“Highly emotive, the novel is an evocative and thoughtful exploration of confrontations, loss and ultimately acceptance.“

Breaking Milk by Dawn Garisch is her 7th novel and takes us into the world of protagonist Kate, a former geneticist and now an award winning organic cheese maker, over one seminal day. Her estrangement from her daughter Jess is at the heart of the novel as, on this day, Jess’s conjoined twins will be separated and Jess has forbidden Kate to come to London to be with her.

Goat by Laty McLeanWe enter the rooms of Kate’s mind as she wrestles with her inner anguish using her routine chores to cover her turmoil. Making cheese, running the farm and restaurant, dealing with her dementia addled father, a manipulative ex-husband and a besotted neighbour take us step by step through this day in vivid prose. Mothers united in their fear, Kate and Nosisi whose son Luzoko is undergoing initiation, work side by side in silent contemplation.

Continue reading review: Woman Zone Book Club

Karina Author, Book, Event

Breaking Milk by Dawn Garisch to be launched at Fynboshoek Cheese Farm

Fynboshoek cheese

Please join us for a special event to celebrate the launch of Dawn Garisch’s Breaking Milk at Fynboshoek Cheese Farm, the place that inspired the setting for the novel.

Dawn will speak about the genesis of her novel, which tells the story of a day in the life of an award-winning maker of organic cheese. The ticket price for the event (R60 per person) includes a cheese tasting.

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Books will be on sale.

We look forward to seeing you there and experiencing this delicious literary treat with our readers!

Karina Author, Book, Competition, Event

A bookwormy day

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Last night, Dawn Garisch launched her novel, Breaking Milk, at Kalk Bay Books. She was in conversation with Tracey Farren.

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In the audience at the amphitheater-like venue outside of the new Kalk Bay Books premises in Kalk Bay, were enthusiastic readers, family and friends, and many writers, among them Karavan Press author, Melissa A. Volker. Thank you to all who attended the event! Your support means the world to us. And thank you to Kalk Bay Books for hosting us! It was a beautiful evening.

Before the launch, I caught up with Caroline Gill at The Bookworm in Fish Hoek. Caroline is the winner of our Karavan Press Review Competition. With her review of A Fractured Land by Melissa A. Volker, Caroline won a R1000 book voucher for a bookshop of her choice and chose The Bookworm, a magical shop which has been in Fish Hoek for over forty years and is a joy to behold. It was my first, but definitely not my last, visit. Yesterday, I found an out-of-print poetry collection by Finuala Dowling there. The book just had to come home with me…

I salute all bookworms. Happy book hunting and reading to you all!

Karina Author, Book, Competition

Caroline Gill wins the Karavan Press Review Competition for her review of A Fractured Land by Melissa A. Volker

Review competitionCongratulations to Caroline Gill! With her review of A Fractured Land by Melissa A. Volker Caroline wins the Karavan Press Review Competition and a book voucher worth R1000 for a bookshop of her choice. Thank you to all participants for reading, engaging with Melissa’s novels, A Fractured Land and Shadow Flicker, and submitting your entries for the competition. To show our appreciation, we would like to send you all a copy of Melissa’s next novel, provisionally titled Switchfoot, when it becomes available next year. In the meantime, we wish Caroline happy book buying and reading!