The fourth Karavan Press Literary Festival took place at SASNEV last Saturday – and it was a day of literary wonder, laughter and engagement. Thank you to the wonderful people at SASNEV – especially Eureka Barnard, Jan Mutton and Brian Brady – for hosting and making us feel so welcome. Thank you to Gail Gilbride, Diane Awerbuck, Lisa Tredoux, Nick Clelland, Lester Walbrugh, Sarah Isaacs, Anna Stroud, John Maytham, Stephen Symons, Alex Latimer and Amy Heydenrych for your contributions to inspiring panels. A special thank you to Amy & Qarnita Loxton for running a great workshop. Mountains and valleys of gratitude to Penny Haw for delivering a deeply moving André Brink Memorial Lecture – not many eyes were dry at the end. Huge thank you to the Brink Family for being with us on the day! Thank you to the SASNEV resident cat for filling in for Salieri, who was at home preparing to catssist with the workshop. And thank you to all Readers who attended to celebrate authors, books and legacies with us! What a day!
I want to express my gratitude to Amy and Anna for joining us all the way from Joburg, and to Sarah for sharing the best news of the entire gathering with us.
Thank you to all who bought a book! Happy reading & writing, Everyone!
We are delighted to announce that the fourth KARAVAN PRESS LITERARY FESTIVAL is going to take place on Saturday, 12 April 2025, at the wonderful South African Centre for the Netherlands and Flanders – SASNEV– 4 Central Square, Pinelands, Cape Town, 7405. Thank you to Eureka Barnard and the Staff of SASNEV for hosting us!
As part of the festival, Penny Haw, winner of the 2024 Philida Literary Award, will deliver the André Brink Memorial Lecture – 6 February 2025 was the 10th anniversary of André’s death, and on 29 May 2025, he would have turned 90. We will remember and celebrate together!
Also as part of the festival, Qarnita Loxton and Amy Heydenrych are offering a Creative Writing Workshop. For all details, please see below.
EVENT 1 09:30-10:15 LIFE AND LAUGHTER
Diane Awerbuck, Lisa Tredoux and Gail Gilbride speak to Nick Clelland about how to use humour in literature across the genres to address important themes that are not necessarily always funny.
EVENT 2 10:30-11:15 FINDING ONESELF
Sarah Isaacs, Anna Stroud, Kharys Ateh Laue and Lester Walbrugh talk to John Maytham about their young characters’ search for who they are and how they want to be in the world when the world is unwilling to cooperate.
COFFEE / TEA BREAK
EVENT 3 12:00-12:45 SECOND CHANCES
“Sometimes the only thing you can do to change is to leave.” (Qarnita Loxton)
Amy Heydenrych, Stephen Symons & Alex Latimer talk to Karina M. Szczurek about their characters’ opportunities for change.
EVENT 4 13:00-13:45
ANDRÉ BRINK MEMORIAL LECTURE
“Influences and Legacies” – PENNY HAW, winner of the 2024 Philida Literary Award
FREE ENTRY TO ALL EVENTS AT SASNEV!
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WORKSHOP 15:30-17:30
6 Banksia Road, Rosebank, 7700 Cape Town
(Please note change of venue for the workshop!)
OPENING THE DOOR TO YOUR STORY
Join authors and collaborators – QARNITA LOXTON and AMY HEYDENRYCH – for an intimate, nurturing creative writing workshop. Get to the heart of your story, uncover the theme of your writing project and work through any potential blocks to your creative writing process in a quiet, encouraging setting.
Snacks and drinks will be served.
The workshop is open to writers of all levels, including beginners. Only 10 spots available. Please book early to avoid disappointment.
The third Karavan Press Literary Festival: Short & Sweet took place at the Fish Hoek Public Library on 9 March 2024. This year, we worked in cooperation with the Blown Away by Books and Friends of the Fish Hoek Library, and focused entirely on the SHORT STORY!
It was difficult to predict how a whole day of short story events, including a workshop, would be received, but we need not have worried. I cannot thank all those who attended enough for their incredible support. The short story is alive and well in our literary community. It was so heartening to see.
I am immensely grateful to all the participating Authors – you are all so talented and inspiring. Listening to you made me fall in love with the short story all over again. Thank you for writing and being part of the Karavan Press journey. What an adventure we are having!
A special thank you to Rachel Zadok of Short Story Day Africa for everything she has done for the short story in South Africa, on the continent and beyond. Her FLOW Workshop showed us how creativity flows in our veins, connecting and empowering us to tell our stories. Also, a huge thank you to Joanne Hichens of Short.Sharp.Stories. The two of you are champions of the short story in South Africa. Deepest gratitude for all the love and energy that you devote to this fascinating form of storytelling!
Photo gallery by Kerry Hammerton, who is working on her first short story collection and compiling an anthology of flashes!
And – of course! – THANK YOU to the Friends of the Fish Hoek Library, especially Debi Hawkins, without whom none of this would have been possible. Thank you for all your amazing support in organising and hosting this day of literary fun!
To all the Readers who took our books home: THANK YOU! And happy reading!
The third Karavan Press Literary Festival will take place in cooperation with the BLOWN AWAY BY BOOKS Festival at the Fish Hoek Public Library on 9 March 2024. This year’s edition of the festival focuses entirely on the SHORT STORY!
Short story authors talk to Karina Szczurek about the process of compiling their first collection: Kerry Hammerton, Sally Partridge, Kharys Laue, Michael Boyd, Werner Pretorius, Paul Morris, Anna Hug.
14:00-15:15
THE SHORT STORY LOVE AFFAIR
In the famous words of Lorrie Moore, “A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage.” Authors with published short story collection to their name discuss their passion for the genre with Joanne Hichens (Short.Sharp.Stories): Diane Awerbuck (Inside your body there are flowers), Frankie Murrey (Everyone Dies), Dawn Garisch (What Remains), Byron Loker (New Swell), Lester Walbrugh (Let It Fall Where It Will), Karen Jennings (Away from the Dead), Alex Latimer (Love Stories for Ghosts).
16:00-17:15
CELEBRATING TIGER & CAPTIVE
Authors and editors of two new workshopped short story anthologies celebrate their work: Tiger contributors Caitlin Spring, Kerry Hammerton, Gail Gilbride, Lucienne Argent, Anita Shapiro, Desiree-Anne Martin, Michelle Meyer and Anna Hug as well as the Captive editors, Helen Moffett and Rachel Zadok, discuss the first Karavan Stories anthology and the eighth Short Story Day Africa anthology with Karina Szczurek.
The inaugural Karavan Press Literary Festival last year was a prayer. We were still in lockdown, still scared, and in-person literary events were scarce, but the longing for them after all the loss and depravation was overwhelming, and so the idea for a small, socially distanced, as safe as possible (under the circumstances) festival was born. Together, we made it happen, and it was a resounding success.
Much has changed since last year, but the longing has remained, and it seems that the Karavan Press Literary Festival is here to stay. The 2022 edition was another day of literary joy, and I want to thank everyone who made it happen!
EVENT 1 10:30-11:30 LOVE STORY
Love is in the air: Sally Partridge and Melissa A. Volker speak to Karina M. Szczurek about writing romance and love (feline guest appearance: Antonia Salieri)
EVENT 2 12:00-13:00 SHORT STORY
Rachel Zadok, founder of SHORT STORY DAY AFRICA, Joanne Hichens, founder of SHORT.SHARP.STORIES, and Lester Walbrugh, talk to Helen Moffett about the projects that define and nurture the short fiction landscape in South Africa and beyond
LUNCH 13:00-14:00 WOMEN OF SOIL
Lunch hour inspired by stories and recipes from Women of Soil: Changing Lives, snacks and drinks were served
EVENT 3 14:00-15:00 MEMOIR
Tracy Going, Erika Bornman, Joanne Hichens and Leslie Swartz discuss the memoir’s potential to change lives
EVENT 4 15:30-16:30 WRITING SISTERS
Joy Watson and Mary Watson (via Skype) in conversation
EVENT 5 17:00-18:00 HISTORICAL NOVEL
Penny Haw, Helen Moffett and Justin Fox talk to Gail Gilbride about the histories that shaped their latest novels
EVENT 6 18:15-19:15 POETRY EVENING
Melissa Sussens, Kerry Hammerton, Stephen Symons and Justin Fox read from their collections
In the audience:
Apart from the gigantic gift of this day of shared literary wonder, I received three physical gifts: smiling sunflowers from Brenda, a lovely Christmas parcel from Sally and an inspiring book from Christy. Thank you, Everyone!
The day ended with a rabbit rescue mission that felt like something out of Alice in Wonderland – thank you, Joanne, for not abandoning my neighbours’ beautiful Sparkles (The Escape Artist) to her uncertain fate. We not only managed to catch her, but made sure that she returned safely home the next day.
The Karavan Press Team at the end of the day (after the successful rabbit rescue)!
Thank you to everyone who participated, attended, shared stories and food and wine, and bought and swapped books, and in general made us believe in miracles again!
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!
What a day of literary delight! Among the doom and gloom of the latest news cycle and despite this weekend’s weather chaos, we made literary magic happen. The (inaugural?) Karavan Press Literary Festival was a resounding success on all fronts (even the Skype connections went smoothly and turned the festival into a transcontinental – Africa / Europe / South America – event!) and I cannot thank the writers and readers who made it possible enough — you make everything worthwhile. Thank you!
10:00-11:00 GOING WILD
Penny Haw discusses the young adult stories included in Going Wild and Other Stories with editor Helen Moffett and contributors Qarnita Loxton, Sally Partridge and Lester Walbrugh
11:30-12:30 LET’S TALK ABOUT …
… the tough life topics: Nancy Richards in conversation with Cathy Park Kelly, James Leatt, Sue Brown and Joanne Hichens about their memoirs and the topics of grief, faith and abuse
13:30-14:30 WRITING WOMEN
Consuelo Roland interviews Melissa A. Volker, Penny Haw, Dawn Garisch, Joanne Hichens and Qarnita Loxton about their writing lives and the women characters they create across genres (literary fiction, chicklit, romance, crime and women’s fiction)
15:00-16:00 SWITCHING GENRES
Joy Watson, Lester Walbrugh, Stephen Symonsand Justin Fox discuss their upcoming books, two debut novels, a debut short story collection and a poetry volume respectively, with their publisher Karina M. Szczurek
16:30-17:30 LIFE WRITING
Dawn Garisch of the Life Righting Collective talks to Charlotte Mande Ilunga, Nancy Richards and Robert Hamblin about life and writing
If there ever was a moving literary event, this was it! To find out more about this amazing initiative, click here:
Karen Jennings and Nick Mulgrew talk to John Maytham about their migratory lives and the themes of land, belonging and migration in their novels, An Island and A Hibiscus Coast
Being currently in Brazil (Karen) and Scotland (Nick), the two authors joined our live audience via Skype and I am grateful to my brother Krystian (in Austria) who helped me set up the connection.
My gratitude to all Karavan Press writers and guests who gave of their time, talent, expertise and extraordinary creativity to make this festival a soul-nourishing event. A special thank you to the authors chairing the individual events.
And thank you to all the fabulous readers who attended throughout the day and have been supporting our efforts in these tough times by buying, sharing and reading our books.
A purring thank you to my Furry Family who welcomed all the visitors into our home and listened in on the sessions.
Dear Readers,
Please join us for the Karavan Press Literary Festival on Saturday, 27 November 2021, in the garden and lounge of Karavan Press's headquarters at 6 Banksia Road, Rosebank, Cape Town.
Ticket numbers are limited to 25 per event, so please book early to avoid disappointment.
Let's talk books!
Literary greetings,
Karina
karavanpress.com 