Karavan Press Literary Festival 2022
Dear Readers,
Please join us for the second Karavan Press Literary Festival on Saturday, 3 December 2022, at Karavan Press’s headquarters (6 Banksia Road, Rosebank, Cape Town). Ticket numbers are limited, so please book early to avoid disappointment. Let’s talk books again!
Literary greetings, Karina
Read here about last year’s festival:
Karavan Press Literary Festival 2021
Cape Flats Book Festival is back with a bang!
“When you live a life of reading, you live like a cat, you experience nine lives,” Premier Alan Winde said at the opening ceremony of the second Cape Flats Book Festival, and added: “There’s nothing like a good book, nothing.” Totally agreed!
And when you live a life of reading, you get to hang out with the coolest of people – readers and writers!
This weekend, readers and writers gathered at the West End Primary School in Mitchells Plain to celebrate the wealth and wonder of literature, and it was an honour to participate. According to the organisers, the festival is “an act of hope, an opportunity to dream beyond our circumstances.” Indeed. And every minute of it was literary delight.
Great vibes, great sessions, laughter and wisdom, lots of connecting and reconnecting and simple sharing – of experience, ideas and the love of books.
Karavan Press authors participating: Joy Watson, Nancy Richards, Lester Walbrugh, Cathy Park Kelly and Joanne Hichens.
The second day of the festival was a little bit quieter, but smaller audience create more intimate interactions and often strong bonds are forged not only between authors and their fans, but also between the authors themselves. Writing is mostly a solitary and often lonely occupation, and it is simply wonderful to encounter others in the same boat and feel slightly less alone in the world.
And when you are lucky, you get to hug Oaky 🙂
Thank you to everyone who made this fantastic event possible!
Hope to see everyone at the next Cape Flats Book Festival!
Cape Flats Book Festival 2022
Please join us for the Cape Flats Book Festival 2022!
Karavan Press authors on the 2022 CFBF programme:
Saturday, 15 October
12:35-13:15 In Conversation (Adults): Sara-JayneMakwala King (Mad Bad Love) & JOY WATSON (The Other Me)
15:20-16:00 In Conversation (Adults): Colleen Higgs (my mother, my madness) & NANCY RICHARDS (The Skipper’s Daughter) moderated by Leslie Swartz (How I Lost My Mother)
Sunday, 16 October
10:55-11:35 In Conversation (Adults): Karina Szczurek (Disruption) & LESTER WALBRUGH (Elton Baaitjies)
11:50-12:30 Against the Odds (Adults): JOANNE HICHENS (Death & the After Parties) & CATHY PARK KELLY (Boiling a Frog Slowly)
We look forward to seeing you there!
Friends of Tokai Library Book Sale, 10 September
Catch Cathy Park Kelly, the author of Boiling a Frog Slowly, and other fabulous authors at the Friends of Tokai Library Book Sale this Saturday between 9am and 12pm.
15 – 17 September: Karavan Press authors at Blown Away by Books
THURSDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 14.00 – 15.00 So you want to write? How to start – how to continue: three writers give insight into their writing journeys and the genres they have explored Lester Walbrugh – Elton Baatjies & Let It Fall Where It Will Shameez Patel – The Last Feather Penny Haw – The Wilderness Between Us Moderator: SarahBelle Selig FRIDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 9.30 – 11.30 Writing workshop with Cathy Park Kelly and Máire Fisher (Library Hall) 14.00 – 15.00 What we know and what we learn – about ourselves, our families, our history Sara-Jayne Makwala King – Mad Bad Love Erika Bornman – Mission of Malice Cathy Park Kelly – Boiling a Frog Slowly Moderator: Karina Szczurek 16.00 – 17.00 The stories we choose to tell – memoir, biography and the fictions between Colleen Higgs – My Mother My Madness Nancy Richards – The Skipper’s Daughter Hedi Lampert – The Trouble With My Aunt Moderator: Cathy Park Kelly SATURDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 16.00 – 17.00 Personal, social, political – stories that create the fabric of our country Sindiwe Magona – Theatre Road In Our Own Words: Nurses on the Front Line Nick Dall and Matthew Blackman – Spoilt Ballots Moderator: Tracey Farren
For the full programme, click here:
BLOWN AWAY BY BOOKS
“Why I Stayed” – Cathy Park Kelly writes for Primer
“His criticism of me is always dressed in psychological terms. Sometimes I wish it was about how I’d made the tea, or the steak not being tender enough. That would be easier to fix.
But our relationship has never been about tea and steak. I fell in love with the way he seemed to live his life on a deeper, more meaningful level than any other guy I’d met. I was astounded at how fluent he was – for a guy – in the language of self-growth. He listened to my tentative explorations of my childhood. His reflections back to me were perceptive, shone a light into dark corners I hadn’t considered.
As time passed, I didn’t notice that the torch light was always on me, and that most often its beam picked out only the dysfunctions; my insecurities about coming from a broken home; and losing my dad when I was young. His empathic listening, punctuated by slow understanding nods, shifted to pointed accusations: I was too needy, not spiritually conscious enough; too this, not enough that.”
PRIMER
Read the article here: PRIMER
Karavan Press authors talk about love and relationships at the UJW’s Stonehaven
Last week, Joy Watson, Cathy Park Kelly and Melissa A. Volker spoke to Karina M. Szczurek about love and relationships in their lives and writing at the beautiful Stonehaven, the home of the Union of Jewish Women (UJW). Thank you to the UJW for hosting, thank you to the authors for their insights and laughter, and to everyone who attended with such generosity of spirit. A beautiful evening!
Thank you, Bernie Shelly, for being there and for sharing a few photographs with us!
karavanpress.com 