Karina Author, Book, Event

EVER AFTER, THE END: Consuelo Roland and Lucienne Bestall in conversation

Mortality forms a thematic throughline in both Consuelo’s first novel, The Good Cemetery Guide (2005), and Lucienne’s debut collection of non-fiction essays, Except for Breath: Reflections on Image and Memory (2025). The authors’ mutual curiosity about death – and what it might teach us about love and longing – is differently explored in their respective genres. While Consuelo tells the story of a funeral director who leads a double life alongside the recently departed, Lucienne considers the ways art and literature have pictured and described ‘the only possible ending’.

Consuelo is a writer working across fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Her debut novel, The Good Cemetery Guide, was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize and the Olive Schreiner Award, and was recently reissued by Karavan Press.

Lucienne is a curatorial researcher and writer. She has contributed to leading local and international art publications and journals, and her essay collection, Except for Breath: Reflections on Image and Memory, was published by Karavan Press in 2025.

Consuelo and Lucienne live in Cape Town.

WEDNESDAY, 28 January 2026, 10:30AM – MEADOWRIDGE LIBRARY HALL
WEDNESDAY, 18 March 2026, 10:00AM – PINELANDS LIBRARY COMMITEE ROOM

Karina Author, Book, Event

The Day of the Dead at Liberty Books

Traditionally celebrated on the last day of October or in early November, the Day of the Dead is an occasion on which family and friends gather to pay their respects to those who have passed on. This year, we are inviting literary friends and family to celebrate the day with Christy Weyer, Consuelo Roland and Alex Latimer at Liberty Books on 4 November 2025.

Consuelo (The Good Cemetery Guide) and Alex (Love Stories for Ghosts) have both written movingly about the dead, remembering and honouring them as well as celebrating their lives and thus encouraging us readers to celebrate ours, here and beyond.

Day of the Dead themed dressing up is optional (but to be strongly considered). All are welcome to attend this free event!
Hope to see you there!

Karina Author, Book

TEMPERATURE: Karavan Stories 2024

Temperature is the result of the Karavan Stories Workshop & Anthology project, now in its second year.

Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak.
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

All the contributors gathered for a writing workshop at the end of April. Together, we discussed the intricacies of the short story, went through several writing exercises, decided on a theme for our anthology and began exploring ideas for individual stories. In the following months, we kept in touch, drafting and redrafting, until the book took shape.

The theme – temperature – was inspired by global and intimate, personal developments. Climate change continues to dominate our weather and news cycles. Heated international debates require cool and collected thinking for the sake of all our futures around the world. It has been an exceptionally difficult year for many – what allows us to survive, and thrive, is the warmth and kindness of our connections. Temperature is testimony to this simple truth.

Contributors could work with the theme in any way they wished, either reimagine it, see it as a springboard or a metaphor, or let their imaginations soar. The stories which emerged interpret ‘temperature’ in the most innovative ways, but they have one thing in common: hot off the press, they inspire reflections on interdependence – between individuals, communities and continents, as well as between humanity and our environment.

I would like to thank all contributing authors for embarking on this journey with Karavan Press: your stories are a cooling balm for a scorching reality. A big thank you to Monique Cleghorn for the exquisite design of our anthology. To our readers: enjoy!

Karina M. Szczurek
Cape Town, December 2024

Contributors: Sue Brown, Christine Coates, Gail Gilbride, Kerry Hammerton, Karen Horn, Karin Lijnes, Ciaran R. Maidwell, Firdose Moonda, Consuelo Roland, Anne Schlebusch, Joëlle Searle, Philisiwe Twijnstra, Alexandra Wood

Cover artwork: Hannes Meiring

Publisher: Karavan Press

Publication date: December 2024

ISBN: 978-1-0672224-3-7

The book will be available in all good bookshops in the new year. Please contact Karavan Press directly if you would like to get copies of the book earlier.