Melissa Sussens will be reading at The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Collective on Thursday, 9 November:
Click here to join the meeting: Zoom
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?’
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.
Lumkile’s Book Joint: FREE BOOK EVENT
A wonderful event is coming up! The FREE BOOK event is taking place on Sunday, 29 October 2023, at Lumkile’s Book Joint.
Address: 32 Ny 22, Guguletu, Cape Town, 7750
There will be performances, food will be sold, and there will be traders as well. Most importantly, Readers will be able to get BOOKS FOR FREE (watch out for Karavan Press titles!).
Four writers will be honoured with the highest BOOK PRIZE of Lumkile’s Book Joint (SA) called BOOK CATALOGUE 2040.
From now on, Lumkile and the organisers envision the FREE BOOK event as an annual event.
All welcome!
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 …
Karavan Press at the Cape Flats Book Festival 2023
The Cape Flats Book Festival will be taking place on 4 and 5 November this year, and I cannot encourage you enough to attend this wonderful festival. Last year was the first time Karavan Press participated and we had an amazing time. We are so happy to have been invited back and can’t wait!
The programme is packed with literary goodness. The venue – West End Primary School – is great. Books will be on sale. Parking and delicious food are available at the school throughout the weekend. The atmosphere is celebratory. And we have heard that Oaky will be there. You do not want to miss it!
This is what we are doing:
4 November
5 November
For more details see:
Cape Flats Book Festival
Hope to see you all there!
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!
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
Festival of Poetry – 4 November 2023
Earlier this year, the McGregor Poetry Festival announced a hiatus for a year. The organisers are taking a well-deserved break. The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Collective and the Rosebank Writers’ Circle decided to step into the breach and organised a once-off event to celebrate poetry at a day-long poetry festival here in Cape Town. Please join us for these exciting poetry panels, taking place at two venues, the Bertha House and Youngblood-Africa, on 4 November 2023.
Events are free! Books will be on sale throughout the day.
Hope to see all poetry lovers there!
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.
