Karina Author, Book, Festival

Karavan Press at the Kingsmead Book Fair 2024

We are all looking forward to the next Kingsmead Book Fair, taking place at Kingsmead College on Saturday, 25 May 2024. Hope to see you there!

09:30-10:30 | Mackenzie 2

Dawn Garisch (What Remains) confirms, with Diane Awerbuck (Inside your body there are flowers), Frankie Murrey (Everyone Dies: A Series), Alex Latimer (Love Stories for Ghosts), and Barbara Ludman (Moving On), that brevity is the soul of wit. And drama. And romance.

09:30-10:30 | Mackenzie 3

Fiona Snyckers (The Hidden) asks Owen Salmon (A Weakness to Die For) and Andrew Brown (The Bitterness of Olives) to unpack the male gaze in storytelling.

12:30 – 13:30 | Music Centre
Georgina Geddes asks Alistair Mackay (The Child), Craig Higginson (The Ghost of Sam Webster), Shubnum Khan (The Lost Love of Akbar Manzil) and Amy Heydenrych (Bad Luck Penny) what it is that makes stories ‘literary’.

12:30 – 13:30 | Chapel

Diane Awerbuck (Inside your body there are flowers) answers the call of nature with Adam Welz (The End of Eden), and Nick Norman (The Woodpecker Mystery: The Inevitability of the Improbable).

12:30 – 13:30 | Mornington

Kate Sidley (Katie Gayle – Julia Bird Mysteries) asks Saaleha Bhamjee (Home Scar), Anna Stroud (Who Looks Inside) and Janine Jellars (When the Filter Fades) what it takes to really own your writing space as a woman.

14:30 – 15:30 | Mornington
Amy Heydenrych (Chasing Marian, Bad Luck Penny) sees if she can find a reason why the characters created by Ashling McCarthy (Down at Jika Jika Tavern), Marina Auer (Double Edged), Femi Kayode (Gaslight) and Natalie Conyer (Present Tense) need to worry about their welfare.

16:00 – 17:00 | Lange Hall
Police reservist Andrew Brown (The Bitterness of Olives) guides Daniel Steyn (The Thabo Bester Story), Naledi Shange (Killer Cop – The Rosemary Ndlovu Story), Karl Kemp (Why We Kill: Mob Justice and the New Vigilantism in South Africa) and Nechama Brodie (Domestic Terror) into the minds of murderers both famous and anonymous.

16:00 – 17:00 | Music Centre

Alex Latimer (Love Stories for Ghosts) discovers if the future is fantastic or frightening with Mandla Moyo (The Fallen Angel), Sarah M Naidoo (A Remedy for Death), Alistair Mackay (The Child) and Babette Gallard (Future Imperfect).

Full programme:

KBF 2024

Tickets:

Webtickets

Karina Author, Book, Event

Last night at The Book Lounge: UCT Writers Series with Frankie Murrey and Bongani Kona

When introducing Frankie Murrey last night at the first UCT Writers Series event taking place at The Book Lounge, Sindiswa Busuku called Frankie a “worker of the imagination”. It is an apt title for the literary powerhouse that she is. Every time I listen to Frankie speak about her work – the curation of the Open Book Festival and her writing – I am inspired. Her words make me want to return to my own writing. The way she reads and actually sees the world, in books and beyond, is a true gift to the literary community. She was in conversation with the ever-thoughtful, funny and incisive Bongani Kona. Listening to them discuss literature and Frankie’s “distinctive” – as Bongani called it – debut, Everyone Dies, was an extraordinary experience.

Here are only a few snippets of what Frankie shared with the audience:

“I read compulsively. If nothing else is available, I will read the text on a shampoo bottle.”

“It’s amazing to see what is happening in this country moving onto the published page.”

“Everything I know, everything I am is through books, through reading and writing.”

“I’m interested in writing in such a way that anything I write about becomes accessible while still preserving the beauty of language; I’m interested in finding a simplicity that holds.”

“I love microscopes because they allow you to look at something in an intense way.”

Click here to buy Everyone Dies at The Book Lounge: Everyone Dies by Frankie Murrey

In March 2024, Frankie won the HSS Award for Best Emerging Author in the Fiction Category for Everyone Dies.

Karina Literary Award, Literary Awards

Karavan Press at the HSS Awards 2024

The National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) announced the winners of the 9th Annual Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Book, Creative Collection, and Digital Contribution Awards last night.

It gives me great pleasure to share the news that Dawn Garisch won the HSS Award for Best Fiction Short Stories for her collection, What Remains. And Frankie Murrey won the HSS Award for Best Emerging Author in the Fiction Category for her debut, Everyone Dies.

Congratulations,

Dawn and Frankie!

FLUID: The Freedom to Be, edited by Joanne Hichens and me won in the Best Fiction Edited Volume category! To say that we are delighted would be the understatement of the year. The Short.Sharp.Stories anthology was published by Tattoo Press and is distributed by Karavan Press. Thank you, Joanne, for inviting me to be part of this wonderful project! It is an honour to call myself your wingwoman.

Congratulations to all other winners! We are thrilled to be in your company.

Thank you to the NIHSS for recognising and celebrating our work.

Cheers to the Short Story!

Karina Author, Book, Event

Diane Awerbuck, Dawn Garisch and Frankie Murrey at Liberty Books

We launched three short story collections at Liberty Books last night: Diane Awerbuck (Inside your body there are flowers), Dawn Garisch (What Remains) and Frankie Murrey (Everyone Dies) were in conversation with Christy Weyer and spoke about the genre, about their individual stories and about what it means to be a writer. It was a magical treat to listen to the three amazing writers in the beautiful space of Christy’s literary cathedral, Liberty Books. Cleo made an appearance, of course, but decided to stay out of the Q&A action this time.

Thank you to the Authors, to Christy and to all who attended! Can’t wait to see you all again next week for the launch of The Bitterness of Olives by Andrew Brown.

Karina Author, Book, Event

Three short-story writers and a bookshop

What better way to approach the end of the year in which Karavan Press published several short story collections than with celebrating three of them on one evening at one of the best bookshops in the country (and the world): Liberty Books. Please join Christy Weyer (and Cleo) as she interviews Dawn Garisch, Diane Awerbuck and Frankie Murrey about their exquisite stories on Tuesday, 5 December, 6 to 8PM.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Karina Author, Book, Event

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!