Karina Author, Book, Event, Interview

Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker launched at the Book Lounge

davIt was quite a while ago that Melissa A. Volker and I sat at Jonkerhuis, discussing over cake and coffee a version of the manuscript that would eventually become her novel Shadow Flicker. During that conversation, I mentioned my dream of becoming a publisher. I also told her that I’d loved her novel; that it needed some work, but that I was convinced it would be published one day and that she should not give up on it… Over the years that I have known Melissa and her writing, I have also been telling her that one day I would be attending her launch at the Book Lounge.

Shadow Flicker has been published, and last night, this beautiful novel was launched at the Book Lounge like I have always known it would be. What I could not have predicted was that I would be the publisher launching it with her, and that it would be a first for both of us. But we all know that the best stories are full of unexpected twists and turns, and that they have satisfying endings. And this one is only a beginning, for Melissa and for Karavan Press.

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The Book Lounge was packed for the event last night, the warmth of the welcome palpable throughout the evening. Melissa was in conversation with Jacqui L’Ange, the author of the exquisite The Seed Thief.

Shadow Flicker launch at Book Lounge3‘I’m usually not a romance reader, but I gobbled these up. These are eco-romances. But they are also thrillers. They are eco-romance thrillers,’ said Jacqui, coining a wonderful term that describes Melissa’s work.

‘I would like readers to understand the issues without having to listen to an environmental lecture,’ Melissa explained. ‘If you package it all into a good story, you can get the word out.’

And a good story is what Melissa tells, in A Fractured Land and Shadow Flicker. May there be many, many more. For her and Karavan Press!

‘I hope that my writing makes people smile,’ Melissa said. It does. Thank you!

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Karina Author, Book

Book delivery: A Fractured Land and Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker

cofCelebrating our first booksIt is always a magical moment: holding your first book copies in your hands. They never feel entirely real, but the joy that is bubbling inside you is overwhelming so, always. Yesterday, that moment was particularly exuberant because Melissa and I were experiencing it together: she as author, I as publisher. Karavan Press’s first ever titles: A Fractured Land and Shadow Flicker.

Ready for distributionAfter the initial trouble with the binding of the first printrun, the second turned out to be perfect and so worth waiting for. The delay was daunting and frustrating, but both Melissa and I knew that what we had imagined for these novels had to become reality in order for us to be able to share them with our readers with all the exhilaration these special books deserve. And now, they are here. And they are everything we have wanted them to be.

Salieri and first copy of Shadow FlickerWe hope to see the first copies in bookshops countrywide sometime next week, and we hope to see many enthusiastic readers at the launch of Shadow Flicker at the Book Lounge on 16 July. Melissa will be in conversation with the fabulous author and journalist, Jacqui L’Ange.

The feline community is already reading and we have the first paw of approval from Salieri, one of our literary cats. We can’t wait to see what Melissa’s Frosty has to say.

Karina Author, Book

Karavan Press to publish Lester Walbrugh’s debut collection of short stories

Karavan Press is excited to announce that we will be publishing the debut short story collection by the excellent local writer Lester Walbrugh. We signed the agreement last week at Liberty Books, a cosy bookshop in Grabouw, Lester’s hometown.

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Lester’s short stories have been published in several anthologies and literary magazines. This year, his “The Space(s) Between Us” has made the longlist of the prestigious Short Story Day Africa Prize and will feature in the SSDA anthology, Hotel Africa; and his “Hairs and Graces” will be published in Hair: Weaving and Unpicking Stories of Identity in September. We look forward to putting together a selection of his best published and new work and sharing it with lovers of the short story. Watch this space for further details!

Karina Author

Author: Lester Walbrugh

Lester WalbrughLESTER WALBRUGH is from Grabouw in the Western Cape. His acclaimed short stories have been published in, among others, the anthologies of Short.Sharp.Stories and Short Story Day Africa, New Contrast and, most recently, Hair: Weaving & Unpicking Stories of Identity. He has lived in the UK and Japan and is currently back in his hometown. Let It Fall Where It Will is his debut short story collection. Elton Baatjies is his first novel.

Author photograph by Francois F. Swanepoel.

Karina Event, Festival, Interview

Melissa A. Volker at the Montagu Book Festival

Melissa A. Volker 1It is our great pleasure to announce that our author, Melissa A. Volker, will be participating in this year’s Montagu Book Festival, which is taking place on the last weekend in July. She will be speaking about romantic environmental fiction and her two novels, A Fractured Land and Shadow Flicker, on Friday afternoon (26 July).

Between 25 and 28 July, Montagu’s KWV Building Complex and the Old Mission Church in Long Street will host a variety of authors and panelists as part of the annual Festival.

The Festival kicks off on Thursday evening, 25 July, with an official opening address by Prof Jonathan Jansen. Other authors participating include Anne Dreyer Erasmus, Colin Johnson, Patricia Schonstein, Jacques le Roux, Theo Kemp, Don Pinnock, Karina M. Szczurek, Irma Joubert, Finuala Dowling, Tania Smit, David Grier, Wilhelm Verwoerd, Duncan Brown, Jopie Coetzee and Shirmoney Shamia Rhode.

Analysts, commentators and activists like Jan-Jan Joubert, Leon Schreiber, Christi van der Westhuizen, Carel Anthonissen, André Bartlett, Spiwo Xapile and Michelle Newhoudt Boonzaaier will participate in panel discussions about the political landscape after the general elections, challenges for the agriculture sector, and the future role of religious institutions in an increasingly secularised world.

A food-and-wine pairing with a cabaret-style show dedicated to the writings of Adam Small will cater for the discerning cultural palate.

Ticket prices: R150 for the whole weekend; R100 for a single day; R50 for a single session (individual author’s talk or panel discussion). These tickets prices exclude the food-and-wine pairing and Adam Small show, which will be priced separately.

Tickets are available from the Montagu-Ashton Tourism Association office at 24 Bath Street, Montagu. Tel.: +27 (0)23 614 2471

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Karina Author

Author: Dawn Garisch

DAWN GARISCH is an author and medical doctor. She is a founding member of the Life Righting Collective (liferighting.com), running writing courses. She has had seven novels, poetry, short stories, a nonfiction work and a memoir published. She has had five plays and a short film produced, and has written for television. Her poem ‘Blood Delta’ won the DALRO prize (2007); Trespass was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize in Africa (2010); ‘Miracle’ won the EU Sol Plaatje Poetry Award (2011); and ‘What to Do About Ricky’ won the Short.Sharp.Stories competition (2013). Her novel Accident was longlisted for the Barry Ronge Sunday Times Fiction Award (2018), and her novel Breaking Milk was shortlisted for the Sunday Times/CNA Fiction Award (2021) and was published in the UK by Héloïse Press in 2024. Her first collection of short stories, What Remains, won the HSS Award for Best Fiction Short Stories and the Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award in 2024. The Consulting Room is her third collection of poetry.