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

Karina Book, Festival

Open Book Festival 2023 – Bestsellers

Five of our books are among the fifteen bestselling books at Open Book Festival 2023!

Everyone Dies by Frankie Murrey (Karavan Press)

Glass Tower by Sarah Isaacs (Holland House Books, locally distributed by Karavan Press)

The Bitterness of Olives by Andrew Brown (Karavan Press)

Inside your body there are flowers by Diane Awerbuck (Karavan Press)

Striving for Social Equity edited by Joy Watson and Ogochukwu Nzewi (Karavan Press)

Thank you to all who bought a book!

Karina Author, Book, Review

Nancy Richards reviews What Remains by Dawn Garisch for Woman Zone

Dear Dawn Garisch

I have just finished your book of short stories, What Remains. I am so sad. I am already missing my nightly fix of meetings with your panoply of thinking, suffering, worrying, reflective, ordinary-not-ordinary characters. Of stepping, albeit briefly, into their exquisitely word-painted lives, their shocking encounters, intriguing histories – in some cases deep into their hearts, their troubled psyches and relationships, in others, fathoms deep into their upbringings to touch on what makes them tick. Sometimes I could piece together the puzzle of their nostalgic pasts, and sometimes, at the endings, I was left wondering about their futures – their next steps, like sitting on the edge of a cliff …

Continue reading: Woman Zone
Karina Author, Book, Event, Festival

Karavan Press and Friends at Open Book Festival 2023

In their latest newsletter, The Book Lounge, wrote the following about Karavan Press:

Karavan Press is a small publishing house owned and run by Karina Szczurek, seriously punching above its weight. We are so grateful to Karina for publishing so many wonderful books that we thought we should shine a light on some of the books she is responsible for that will be featured at Open Book Festival:

Everyone Dies by Frankie Murrey ~ An exquisite debut collection of stories – I will be cajoling Frankie on to the stage to talk about Everyone Dies. – Mervyn

A Crowded Lonely Walk by Sipho Banda ~ In this riveting poetry collection, Sipho Banda delves into the daily happenings of the ubiquitous but anonymous working class, and restores dignity to those whose lived experiences so often go overlooked. – Belinda

Glass Tower by Sarah Isaacs ~ Glass Tower is the winner of the inaugural Island Prize for debut fiction from Africa.

Inside your body there are flowers by Diane Awerbuck ~ an incredibly versatile writer who returns to the genre for which she is best known – the short story – in this new collection which is nothing short of superb.

The Bitterness of Olives is set in Gaza and Israel and is Andrew’s finest novel. Empathetic, thought provoking, beautifully written with the pace of a thriller. – Mervyn

Striving for Social Equity edited by Joy Watson and Ogochuku Nzewi ~ an invaluable gathering of voices touching on the very real challenges facing South Africans today.

What Remains by Dawn Garisch ~ new collection of stories from one of our best-loved writers that deals with relationships, ageing and so much more.

Karina will be participating in a discussion about the future of publishing.

The Book Lounge

We are immensely grateful for the encouragement and support! And this is how we will be “punching” at Open Book Festival 2023:

Open Book Festival 2023 Programme

Watch out for Karavan Press authors and Friends (we are lucky distribution partners for Glass Tower by Sarah Isaacs and Cat Therapy by Gail Gilbride):

Book your tickets here:

Open Book Festival – Webtickets