Karina Author, Book

Karavan Press title: TEARS BEFORE BEDTIME by Diane Awerbuck

This is a little book of happiness. You’ll need someone in the room to read the really funny ones to. – PAIGE NICK

This is a joke book – a collection of real conversations I’ve had with my offspring, or that they’ve had with me, mostly against my will. I started keeping records for my own entertainment when they began to talk properly:

Two-year-old: What’s that?
Me: My nipple.
Two-year-old: Is it dead?

I regretted teaching them to speak once pre-adolescence and Covid lockdowns arrived – life phases with equivalent survival strategies and effects:

Nine-year-old: Good news! While you were in your meeting, I finished your puzzle!
Me: …
Nine-year-old: I could see it was too hard for you.

It’s still noisy here.

Thirteen-year-old: I don’t like boys.
Me: Okay.
Thirteen-year-old: I like cats.
Me: Okay!
Thirteen-year-old: So … not your daughter, then.

I hope it never ends. Life is a set-up, and parenting is the punchline. As my mother once said, ‘I hope one day you have children. And then we’ll see who’s laughing.’

Publication date: April 2025

ISBN: 978-0-6398626-0-6

DIANE AWERBUCK is a prizewinning writer, reviewer, editor and teacher. She writes femme/goth thrillers (Home Remedies); memoirs (Gardening at Night); pandemic cowboy thrillers (South, as Frank Owen; North, as Frank Owen); doctorates on trauma (The Spirit and the Letter); holy-wholly poetry (As above, so below); and short story collections (Cabin Fever; Inside your body there are flowers). Tears Before Bedtime is her latest offering. She hopes you are sitting comfortably.

Karina Author, Book

Karavan Press title: Of Salt, Dust and Love by Stephen Symons

The melancholy of loss—past, present or anticipated—of time passing, life lived and the futility of war weave through these short stories. Subtly crossing genres (military fiction, science fiction, historiographic metafiction, romance), and intertwining the poetic in the prose. Narrative resolutions are left open to further interpretation and imagining; provoking a re-reading of the stories.

– Glen Thompson

ISBN: 978-0-6398626-4-4

Publication date: April 2025

STEPHEN SYMONS has published poetry and short fiction in journals, magazines and anthologies, locally and internationally. His debut collection, Questions for the Sea (uHlanga, 2016), received an honourable mention for the 2017 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry, and was also shortlisted for the 2017 Ingrid Jonker Prize. His unpublished collection Spioenkop was a semi-finalist for the Hudson Prize for Poetry (USA) in 2015. His second collection, Landscapes of Light and Loss (Dryad Press), was published in 2018, and third collection, FOR EVERYTHING THAT IS POINTLESS AND PERFECT (Karavan Press), in 2020. Small Souls, a collection of collected and new poems was published in 2022 by Karavan Press. The collection was shortlisted for a South African Literary Award (2023) and includes the winning poem of the 2021 The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Competition, ‘Small Souls’. His The Algebra of Insignificance was published in 2024. Symons holds a PhD in History (University of Pretoria) and an MA in Creative Writing (University of Cape Town). He lives with his family in Oranjezicht, Cape Town. Of Salt, Dust and Love is his first collection of short stories.

Karina Author, Book, Distribution

Karavan Press and Protea Distribution become local distribution partners for AKHONA’S JOURNEY: A true life story from the Lulibo Project by Pharie Sefali and Deborah Ewing

Akhona’s Journey – A true life story from the Lulibo Project is about a young girl who grows up in a township and faces difficulties that threaten her childhood and family life. Through this seven-part book and the accompanying animated video, discover the profound impact of her experiences and the critical choices she makes to forge ahead.

In partnership with ACT Ubumbano, Lulibo Project is launching this series along with a transformative resource pack, which is intended to help educators and facilitators guide conversations and activities with young people about the issues raised in the series. The purpose is to support young people in difficult circumstances to avoid the challenges Akhona faces and to prevent and reduce the harm related to crime and exploitation.

The launch of Akhona’s Journey is not just about a series: it’s about igniting change. And that’s why the authors – Pharie Sefali and Deborah Ewing – created the resource pack, designed to equip activists and community members with the tools to spark thought-provoking conversations and inspire young people to become agents of change in their community.

Teaser for the animated video: Akhona’s Journey Trailer

Animated video: Akhona’s Journey

South African distribution partner: Karavan Press

Publisher: ACT Ubumbano

ISBN: 978-0-7961-7428-4

If you are a bookseller, please contact Protea Distribution to order copies of Akhona’s Journey. If you are a reader / educator / activist, please ask your local bookshop to order the book for you via Protea Distribution.

Karina Author, Book, Distribution

Karavan Press becomes the local distribution partner for BRAIDS & MIGRAINES by Andile Cele

WE ARE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THAT KARAVAN PRESS IS THE SOUTH AFRICAN DISTRIBUTION PARTNER FOR BRAIDS & MIGRAINES BY ANDILE CELE, RUNNER-UP FOR THE ISLAND PRIZE 2023.

ABOUT THE BOOK

“A novel of insight and emotion. Cele has the talent to both shatter and uplift, making her an invaluable new voice in South African literature.” The Island Prize Judges

“The beauty of this novel is that while it takes a close-up look at human strife, in doing so it shines a light on the humanity we all share.” From the Foreword by Rachel Edwards

When Nomandla is awarded a scholarship to attend the prestigious Cameron House for Girls in Durban, she thinks her life will improve. Instead it falls apart. Growing up in Ziyabuya township, Nomandla battles poverty, racism, and her own mental health. She is pursued by visions which result in her being hospitalised, and is then made to accompany her father on Saturdays to his gardening job at the home of the Smith family. It is here that she first encounters Casey, a girl who will play a significant role in turning her life upside down, destroying her hope of a better future. Meanwhile, at Cameron House, Nomandla learns that, as a scholarship girl, she is expected to showcase gratitude as well as her culture, being regarded as little more than a display of transformation, unity and acceptance. Unfortunately, the reality is very different.

Andile Cele’s beautiful debut novel considers the complexities around identity, its ties to shame, grief, and to South Africa’s painful history. Braids & Migraines follows Nomandla as she comes to a place of personal understanding and acceptance, without compromise.

South African distribution partner: Karavan Press

Publisher: Holland House Books, UK

Publication date: 17 April 2025

ISBN: 978-1-7391047-6-4

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANDILE CELE is a writer and communications specialist, born and raised in Stanger, KwaZulu-Natal. She was born in 1986, when apartheid was nearing its end – to a mother who has worked as a domestic worker all her adult life. She has three siblings; one of them, a brother, is autistic and nonverbal. Andile’s advocacy for mental health awareness stems from the experiences they faced as a family – with a member who was and still is, for the most part, misunderstood. Andile has a degree in Journalism from the Tshwane University of Technology, and a Creative Writing and Theory of Literature degree from the University of South Africa. She is an MA candidate at Stellenbosch University, where she is examining the depiction of intergenerational trauma in selected South African women’s writing. She is the current holder of the Gwen Knowles-Williams Bursary, administered by the English Academy of Southern Africa. She dedicates her writing to her mother. Her short fiction has been published in Botsotso and Short.Sharp.Stories.

If you are a bookseller, please contact BOOKSITE to order copies of Braids & Migraines. If you are a reader, please ask your local bookshop to order the book for you via Booksite.

Karina Author, Book, Event, Festival

Karen Jennings at Time of the Writer

Catch Karen Jennings at Time of the Writer this year:

A Crime for our Times – shaping violence through story: This sizzling panel focuses on crime fiction from the pen of some of the best South African crime writers. We delve deep into the dark underbelly of society, cults and psychopathy, murder and mystery.

Date: Sunday, 23 March 2025

Time: 14:00

Duration: 70min

Participants: Fiona Snyckers, Marina Auer, Karen Jennings, Zukiswa Wanner

Facilitator: Angelo Fick

Venue: Alliance Francaise, Durban

Full programme:

Time of the Writer, 18-23 March 2025

Karina Author, Book, Festival

Karavan Press at Books on the Bay 2025

Please join us between 14 and 16 March 2025 for Books on the Bay, a wonderful celebration of local literature and inspiration, now in its third year.

Karavan Press authors participating:

Saturday, 15 March 2025

10:15-11:00 METHODIST CHURCH

In the famous words of Lorrie Moore, “A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage.” Award-winning short story exponents Dawn Garisch and Diane Awerbuck discuss with Bongani Kona the joys and challenges of their relationship with the alluring genre.

13:15-14:15 METHODIST CHURCH

The art of memoir: Anthony Akerman, Lucky Bastard; Thobeka Yose, In Silence My Heart Speaks; Julia Martin, The Blackridge House. Led by Jo-Anne Richards, three leading exponents reflect on life-writing and the life-changing process of memoir writing.

Sunday, 16 March 2025

9:00-10:00 TOWN HALL

Karen Jennings – Crooked Seeds, longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction

11:30-12:30 TOWN HALL

Andrew Brown – The Bitterness of Olives: In this remarkable novel set in Gaza City, Andrew Brown – current Sunday Times Fiction Award holder – explores a complex friendship battered by political forces. In conversation with Michele Magwood.