Karina Author, Book

Karavan Press title: So, by Beatrice Willoughby

The cool side of a pillow on a midsummer’s night.
A dog’s tail when you open the door.
Your mother’s face.
That first sip, of what is up to you.
His hand on your waist.
An owl’s hoot.
A child calling for you.

Daughter of poet, author, and creative writing teacher, Finuala Dowling, and satirist, performer, and playwright, Guy Willoughby, Beatrice Willoughby grew up immersed in Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde and Billy Collins. Her school holidays were spent learning classic poems off by heart and performing comic sketches and take-offs for her uncles, aunts and cousins. Following in her maternal grandfather’s footsteps, she pursued copywriting, for which she has won several awards. She lives in Cape Town. So, is her debut collection of poetry.

Publication date: November 2023

ISBN: 978-1-7764581-5-8

‘YOU’RE OKAY, HEY?’

Years pass.
Life goes on,
until it doesn’t.
Death is eternal.
Once they’re gone,
they’re gone.

Years pass.
Condolences diminish,
you’ve forgotten his voice,
as if you were dropped 
onto your mother’s lap by a stork.

Years pass.
You graduate,
you get a desk,
you submit tax returns,
you buy a car with a red bow.

Years pass,
‘You’re okay now, hey?’
‘It was a long time ago.’
‘He was so sick.’

Yes, I’m okay.
Don’t worry about me.
I will play down my father’s death,
to make you feel more comfortable.

I won’t tell you he was gay,
I won’t tell you that he died of AIDS,
I won’t tell you that I never called him dad,
or that I saved the emails he sent,
the ones I didn’t respond to.

I won’t.
I will smile with his face,
and his eyes.
And then one day,
when you’re sixteen, 
and you’re authorising your father’s death,
call me, and I’ll say,
‘You’re okay, hey?’
Karina Author

Author: Beatrice Willoughby

Daughter of poet, author, and creative writing teacher, Finuala Dowling, and satirist, performer, and playwright, Guy Willoughby, Beatrice Willoughby grew up immersed in Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde and Billy Collins. Her school holidays were spent learning classic poems off by heart and performing comic sketches and take-offs for her uncles, aunts and cousins. Following in her maternal grandfather’s footsteps, she pursued copywriting, for which she has won several awards. She lives in Cape Town.

Karina Author, Book, Event

The Bitterness of Olives launched at The Book Lounge

It feels impossible for me to capture in a few words what it meant to launch Andrew Brown’s The Bitterness of Olives at The Book Lounge last night during the present time when the world the novel is set in has been shattered and the consequences of that shattering are reverberating in the Middle East and around the globe. So I just want to express my gratitude: to Andrew, for writing this story and speaking about it with such integrity and compassion; to Mervyn, for bringing this extraordinary novel to my attention, helping us to prepare it for publication and leading the discussion last night; to all who attended, for listening with open minds and hearts; to the Karavan support network, for never underestimating the power of storytelling and -sharing; and to Adara, for trying to find the way …

Karina Author, Book, Event

Everyone Dies launched at The Book Lounge

We officially welcomed Everyone Dies, the beautifully crafted, mesmerising debut collection of short fiction by Frankie Murrey, into the literary world at the Book Lounge launch last night. Frankie was in conversation with Mervyn Sloman. To hear her speak about her love for the written word was truly inspiring. It made me open my own notebook with a smile today.

Thank you to Frankie, Mervyn, The Book Lounge and all Readers and Writers who attended. A wonderful evening.

During the conversation, Frankie referred to the alphabet as “a gateway drug”. The way she uses letters and words in her exquisite writing will make your soul soar. No surprise, Everyone Dies was the bestselling book at The Book Lounge in September. Congratulations, Frankie!

And to all the Readers who are yet to discover her work: Happy reading!

Karina Author, Book, Literary Award

SMALL SOULS by Stephen Symons shortlisted for the SALA Poetry Award

The shortlisted nominees of the S.A. Literary Awards 2023 have been announced and we are delighted to report that Small Souls by Stephen Symons was shortlisted for the Poetry Award.

“The 34-strong panel of judges of the South African Literary Awards (SALA) spent months rigorously reading, scrutinising, and scoring the over 200 books that answered to the Call for Submissions issued in November 2022. […] The huge number and diversity of books submitted are a testimony to the amazing journey SALA has travelled since the inaugural ceremony held at the Durban International Convention Centre, Kwa-Zulu Natal, on the 5th March 2005, in honour of South Africa’s world-renowned scholar, author, eminent yet unsung poet of majestic epics and literary genius, Prof. Mazisi Kunene.” (SALA)

Poetry Award

  • Vuyisile Msila – Yombela
  • Kaka Mokakale – Tswina ya poko
  • Anelisa Thengimfene – Amajingiqhiw’ entlalo
  • Michèle Betty – Dark Horse
  • Stephen Symons – Small Souls: New and Collected Poems

Congratulations to Stephen and all other shortlisted authors!

The 18th SALA Awards handover ceremony will take place on 7th November 2023.

For more information, click here: S.A. Literary Awards 2023

Karina Author, Book

New edition of a beloved memoir, Thinking Up a Hurricane by Martinique Stilwell

It gives me great joy to share the news that Karavan Press has published a new edition of Martinique Stilwell’s beloved memoir, Thinking Up a Hurricane.

In the spring of 1977, Frank Stilwell launched Vingila, 17 tons of welded together 11-millimeter steel plates. Never one to be daunted by a challenge or resisted in any way, he took his nine-year-old twins Robert and Martinique out of school, persuaded his wife Maureen that they would all learn to sail and cope with life on the open seas as they went, and prepared to follow his dream of circumnavigating the world.

In this unique coming-of-age memoir, Martinique Stilwell’s recounting of her true-life gypsy childhood is poignant, funny and heartbreaking. With the wisdom and innocence of a child’s point of view, it is a powerful and tender story of physical and emotional adversity, of family dysfunction and the ties that bind, and of the shackles and exhilarating freedom of growing up different.

Praise for Thinking Up a Hurricane:

‘With Thinking Up a Hurricane, Stilwell joins the ranks of great ocean-crossing storytellers like Robin Lee Graham, Webb Chiles and Joshua Slocum.’ – Sunday Times

‘Thinking Up a Hurricane is a riveting tale of adventure and bravery.’ – Brian Joss, The Tatler

‘This is a travel narrative of the highest order … it offers a glimpse into the little-known gypsy-esque world of strange folk who head off to sea for years at a time.’ – Cameron Ewart-Smith, Getaway

‘A remarkable account of a storm-tossed childhood.’ – Nic Dawes

Publisher: This edition Karavan Press

Publication date: October 2023

ISBN: 978-1-7764581-6-5

(First published by Penguin Books South Africa, 2012)

MARTINIQUE STILWELL was born in South Africa in 1967 and sailed around the world with her family from the age of nine till she was sixteen. Martinique now lives in Cape Town, where she works as a doctor.

Karina Author, Book, Review

Arja Salafranca reviews WHAT REMAINS by Dawn Garisch for News24

Just before going to sleep one night, I read Dawn Garisch’s story Knock, Knock, which is about an encounter between a man and woman who are unknown to each other and meet randomly when the woman knocks on the man’s door asking for sugar. 

The nearest restaurant is two hours away, and they have both driven somewhere isolated in a quest for peace and a way to escape their everyday lives.

The story lulled me to sleep with its sweet melody of this serendipitous encounter and its satisfying conclusion.

What Remains is novelist Dawn Garisch’s powerful and compelling debut collection of short fiction. Not all the stories lulled me to sleep, though. Some left me a little uneasy, in a good way, mulling over and digesting the events of the stories.

Here are stories about marriages barely holding together by the crumbling remains of a long-ago glue that’s losing strength. Here are women who have lost husbands or are coming to terms with the realisation that the unions they stayed in so long weren’t quite as glorious as hoped. A man steps outside his life to take an unhealthy interest in other people, another man contemplates a dalliance with another woman, and a married man falls in love with another man …

Continue reading: News24