The Cape Flats Book Festival 2026 is just around the corner and it is the perfect start to the literary festival calendar of the new year. A few Karavan Press and Indeed Books authors feature on the wonderful programme that has something to offer for every literary desire. We can’t wait for these two days of bookish encounters. Please join us!
Shouldn’t everyone have such a nightwithout thoughtswithout wordsonly taste and touch and smelland the light behind closed eyesslightly redslightly yellow?
‘In Let’s Be Legends, Chantal Stewart leads the reader into her intimate life and asks us to bear witness to her love of the land and family, nature and the night sky, and to her connection to a foreign city and to loves. She also shows us the comfort of a mature love, getting married and building a home with that love. At the centre of this collection is the curious poet who asks us to pay attention to the small things – the tortoise, a field mouse, red dust, the smell of paraffin, pink toenails, eggshells, a child’s kite; and to big issues – gender-based violence, war, refugees and displacement. Her call is for you to feel life. You also have to admire a poet who uses the word paraphernalia and makes it sing.’—KERRY HAMMERTON
CHANTAL STEWART is a medical doctor and has worked in an academic hospital for most of her life. Her first love has always been writing and she completed an MA in Creative Writing at UCT. Her debut novel, The Veil of Maya, was published in 2022 and was joint winner of the NIHSS Award for Best Novel in the Fiction Category (2023) and the UCT Book Award (2024). She has also published poems and short stories in Women Flashing (2006), Writing the Self (2008), Twist (2006) and Stanzas (2021, 2024). She facilitates writing workshops and retreats for beginner and experienced writers. Let’s Be Legends is her first collection of poems.
CHANTAL STEWART is a medical doctor and has worked in an academic hospital for most of her life. Her first love has always been writing and she completed an MA in Creative Writing at UCT. Her debut novel, The Veil of Maya, was published in 2022 and was joint winner of the NIHSS Award for Best Novel in the Fiction Category (2023) and the UCT Book Award (2024). She has also published poems and short stories in Women Flashing (2006), Writing the Self (2008), Twist (2006) and Stanzas (2021, 2024). She facilitates writing workshops and retreats for beginner and experienced writers. Let’s Be Legends is her first collection of poems.
We are heading to Richmond again at the end of this month and hoping that many readers from across the country will follow. It is time for the Madibaland @ BookBedonnerd Literary Festival! Taking place between 30 October and 1 November, the festival brings together a wonderful mix of writers and readers.
Among the participants are Karavan Press authors Chantal Stewart, Kerry Hammerton and Holland House Books’ Andile Cele, whose wonderful debut novel, Braids & Migraines, we help distribute in South Africa.
Please join us for an evening of poetry next to the fireplace with Sarah Frost, Chantal Stewart and Lucienne Argent.
Sarah, who recently published her second collection of poetry with Karavan Press – River Fugue – is based in Durban, but she is visiting Cape Town towards the end of the month, and we are using this wonderful opportunity to spend an evening in her company. Together with Chantal Stewart, author of the award-winning novel The Veil of Maya who will be publishing her debut poetry collection with Karavan Press later this year, Let’s Be Legends, and Lucienne Argent, whose debut, Self-Portrait of a Guava, has been warming reader’s hearts since its publication in December last year, Sarah will be in conversation with Karina M. Szczurek, and all three poets will read from their collections. We will have a lovely fire, snacks and wine will be served, and books will be on sale. Not to be missed!
Limited space. Please RSVP as soon as possible to avoid disappointment: RSVP
The first book festival of 2025 is just around the corner – Cape Flats Book Festival – and we are delighted to announce the following events featuring Karavan Press authors:
SATURDAY, 1 February, 10:45-11:25 | IN OTHER STORIES
SATURDAY, 1 February, 11:40-12:20 | STORYTELLING FOR CHILDREN
SATURDAY, 1 February, 12:35-13:15 | COURAGEOUS SURVIVORS: OVERCOMING A TRAUMATIC PAST
SATURDAY, 1 February, 15:20-16:00 | TRIBUTE TO POET IN EXILE: ATHOL WILLIAMS
Lester Walbrugh will also be at the Festival, speaking about the book he co-wrote with Karin Kortje – not to be missed!
SUNDAY, 2 February, 12:45-13:25 | DIE HELE STORIE / THE WHOLE STORY
We are delighted to announce that Karavan Press is publishing a new edition of Chantal Stewart‘s highly acclaimed, award-winning novel, The Veil of Maya.
WINNER OF THE 2023 NIHSS BEST FICTION NOVEL AWARD & THE 2024 UCT BOOK AWARD
ABOUT THE BOOK
Lena Brown, a geneticist who spends her days in Cape Town comfortably engrossed in laboratory work, receives a call to investigate an outbreak of madness amongst a group of men in a small town in rural Swaziland. She is excited to revisit the place of her childhood holidays. However, she does not realise how this journey will change her, challenging her beliefs and her perceptions of the world.
The novel is both a medical mystery and love story. Just before leaving Cape Town, Lena meets the charismatic astronomer Gabriel Powell, and finds herself attracted to the mystery which she senses within him. Circumstances intervene which force her to confront issues of trust and deception, secrets and loss.
The Veil of Maya slips between the worlds of Cape Town, Sutherland, Swaziland and England. At its core is a powerful story of love and life.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
A story that moves seamlessly through the world of stars, science and different cultures.
– Gail Gilbride Bohle, author of Under the African Sun and Cat Therapy
CHANTAL STEWART is a medical doctor, author and poet. She works fulltime in a government hospital and in her spare time facilitates creative writing workshops. She has published poetry and short stories in Women Flashing (2006), Writing the Self (2008), Twist (2006), and Stanzas (2021, 2023). She lives with her husband and two dogs.
karavanpress.com 