The National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences hosted its annual HSS Awards gala last night and we are thrilled to announce that four Karavan Press titles were recognised at the Awards. Congratulations to Anna Stroud, Alex Latimer, Shari Daya and Nick Clelland on your wonderful achievements!
SHORTLISTED TITLES
Land | Lines, Shari Daya in the Best Poetry sub-category.
Good Hope, Nick Clelland in the Best Fiction Novel sub-category.
WINNING TITLES
Who Looks Inside, Anna Stroud in the Best Fiction Emerging Author sub-category.
Love Stories for Ghosts, Alex Latimer in the Best Fiction Short Stories sub-category.
Congratulations to all nominated and winning authors!
Thank you to all who make the HSS Awards possible!
A story of a woman’s coming of age in war-torn Paris. Her challenges, adventures and passions.
Odette is a young, highly intelligent, headstrong Parisian woman, from a bourgeois military background. She finds herself flirting around the edges of a bohemian lifestyle during the heady days of resistance fighters and WWII. Her story takes us through her work in Paris at the French Ministry of Defence, their relocation to make way for German occupation, her meeting of an enigmatic man, her journey into a world of resistance fighters and espionage during which time she discovers the pleasures of womanhood and love.
Jean is Mauritian-born of a German father and an Irish/French mother. He is an enigma. Nobody really knows who he works for. Is he a spy or not, if so, for friend or foe? He is charismatic, a born leader and undertakes daring missions as lead of a Parisian resistance cadre. He is captured and interred at Gurs internment camp. His story takes us from Mauritius to the heart of Parisian artistes and intellectual bohemians, and to the underground resistance movement, where as a leader, he sets up escape routes for the Jews of Paris.
This is their story.
“An immersive and lively tale of love, resilience, and courage, Odette transports us back to another ear while telling a compelling, pacey adventure story.” – Penny Haw, author of The Invincible Miss Cust, Woman at the Wheel, and Follow Me to Africa
“Searle’s riveting tale of passion, heartache, and devastating betrayals kept me at the edge of my seat as I travelled back in time with her. Immerse yourself in this epic tale.” – Gail Gilbride, author of Under the African Sun and Cat Therapy
Publisher: Lulu.com, U.S.
South African distribution partner: Karavan Press and Protea Distribution
Publication date: October 2024
ISBN: 978-1300969679
JOËLLE SEARLE was born in Mauritius and came to South Africa aged two. She is retired and currently lives in Hout Bay at the southern tip of Africa with her husband Alf and a border terrier, Lulu. She has four children and eleven grandchildren.
If you are a bookseller, please contact Protea Distribution to order copies of Odette. If you are a reader, please ask your local bookshop to order the book for you via Protea Distribution.
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.
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.
Please join us for the Cape Town launch of Andrew Robert Wilson’s The Fourth Boy at The Book Lounge on Tuesday, 1 April 2025, 6 for 6:30PM. Andrew will be in conversation with John Maytham. Not to be missed!
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.
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.
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 PRIZE2023.
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.
Please join us for another celebration of the South African Library Week at the Rondebosch Library on 18 March 2025, at 15:30! Consuelo Roland will be in conversation with Aimee Searle.
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.
karavanpress.com 