Karina Festival

Karavan Press at the FLF 2024

The Franschhoek Literary Festival – 17 to 19 May – is just around the corner and it promises to be another exciting literary adventure. We are thrilled to be involved. You can listen to and meet Karavan Press at the following events:

FRIDAY

11:30-12:30 | [6] THE SOLACE OF STORY
OLD SCHOOL HALL
When the world is falling apart, a novel can help. John Maytham digs into the empathetic and cathartic power of fiction with Andrew Brown, whose new thriller, The Bitterness of Olives, is set against the backdrop of the Israel–Palestine crisis; and with Ian Sutherland, whose new historical novel Catastrophe deals with the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown of 1986.

13:00-14:15 | [18] THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID (Screening)
FRANSCHHOEK THEATRE
Natasha Sutherland’s inventive documentary begins by observing the making of a stage adaptation of Tracy Going’s book Brutal Legacy, in which she reveals her past experience of abusive relationships. It then documents the frank conversations that follow between members of the audience. A powerful social dialogue about men, women and violence.

14:30-15:30 | [26] GOOD THINGS IN SMALL PACKAGES
COUNCIL CHAMBERS
In an age of attention deficits, short fiction is in demand. Diane Awerbuck (Inside Your Body There Are Flowers) discusses the nuts and bolts of the form with three writers: Troy Onyango (For What Are Butterflies Without Their Wings), Frankie Murrey (Everyone Dies) and Dawn Garisch (What Remains).

16:00-17:00 | [32] TURNING THE TIDE
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
Anti-GBV awareness campaigns are not stopping the war waged on women by violent men. What will? How will the codes of South African masculinity be rewritten? Tracy Going (Brutal Legacy) speaks to Andy Kawa (Kwanele, Enough!) and Joy Watson (Striving for Social Equity).

SATURDAY

10:00-11:00 | [47] A HOME IS NOT A HOUSE (Screening)
FRANSCHHOEK THEATRE
Written by Lester Walbrugh (Elton Baatjies) and directed by Earl Kopeledi, this short film is a bold exploration of Cape Town’s class and race chasms – and the weight of personal histories. Three homeless people are tasked with retrieving a hard drive from a beachside bungalow. They stick around to luxuriate, but then it gets complicated …
Lester Walbrugh and Earl Kopeledi will give a short Q&A after the screening.

13:00-14:00 | [61] THE GRIM READER
CHURCH HALL
“No two people ever read the same book”, reckoned literary critic Edmund Wilson. Even so, a writer’s imaginary reader can become a singular presence — one that variously needs to be defied, satisfied, seduced or erased. 2023 Sunday Times Literary Awards winner, C.A. Davids (How to Be a Revolutionary) swaps notes on readers with Karen Jennings (Crooked Seeds), Ivan Vladislavić (The Near North) and Craig Higginson (The Ghost of Sam Webster).

13:00-14:00 | [64] SIGNS OF A STRUGGLE
HOSPICE HALL
Sponsored by Pam Golding Properties
Thobeka Yose (In Silence My Heart Speaks) tells Sara-Jayne Makwala King about her experience of parenting a transgender child – and of understanding her child’s attempted suicide. How can parents of teenagers recognise a crisis, and fight the transphobia that inhibits teens from seeking help?

14:30-15:30 | [71] IN THE THIRST PERSON
CHURCH HALL
Having good sex is apparently easier than writing good sex scenes. But that’s not rocket science, surely? Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane juggles the ins and outs of high-end lit smut with Busisekile Khumalo (Sunshine and Shadows), Joy Watson (The Other Me) and Kobby Ben Ben (No One Dies Yet).

SUNDAY

10:00-11:00 | [88] THE WRITE THERAPIST
OLD SCHOOL HALL
Sewela Langeni gathers three writers who have grappled with personal trauma: memoirists Thobeka Yose (In Silence My Heart Speaks) and Margie Orford (Love and Fury); and Megan Choritz in Lost Property, a work of fiction. Does the ordeal of writing a painful history dispel the pain, and how?

10:00-11:00 | [92] STUCK IN THE MIDDLE
HOSPICE HALL
Sponsored by Pam Golding Properties
Claustrophobic tensions drive the acclaimed new novels by Booker long-listed Karen Jennings (whose Crooked Seeds proceeds from the discovery of human remains on a family’s land) and Nick Mulgrew (whose Tunnel traps a random group of travellers in a Cape highway tunnel). Both of these taut literary thrillers conjure unnerving versions of South African reality. Karina Szczurek will ask them to dig deep.

11:30-12:30 | [96] HOW TO GRIP
CHURCH HALL
Being unputdownable is a delicious dream for most fiction writers, but a rare knack. Still, some of the narrative tricks that make for a one-sitting read can be acquired, as Danielle Weakley learns when speaking with Femi Kayode (Gaslight), Fiona Snyckers (The Hidden) and Nick Mulgrew (Tunnel).

For the full programme, click here:

FLF 2024

Tickets:

Webtickets

Karina Author, Book, Event

GOOD HOPE by Nick Clelland launched at 6 Spin Street

What an evening! The crowds gathered at 6 Spin Street to celebrate the launch of Good Hope by Nick Clelland last night.

Nick was in conversation with the wonderful Refilwe Moloto, who asked all the pertinent and intriguing questions and made us laugh.

Good Hope was written during lockdown. ‘It is my banana bread,’ Nick said. To bring the setting – an alternative, speculative present-day Cape Town that is the capital of a new independent country, the Good Hope Territory – he had to do some serious world-building. The result was a fictional Wikipedia entry longer than the one real South Africa has at present. But only excerpts from it feature in the novel. The rest is a fast-paced narrative about a handful of characters trying to make themselves at home in this strange, new – and eerie – world. ‘It is Cape Town, but it ain’t,’ Nick said.

It is a riveting read about what happens when ‘liberty is on fire’. Nick told us that he wanted ‘to poke the bear’ and examine the concept of freedom, even more so now when we are approaching the next elections. Good Hope does not give answers to difficult questions about franchise, privacy and agency, but is not afraid to ask them. ‘If you read this book and do not feel awkward at some stage, you are probably a psychopath,’ he said. ‘I wanted to shake things up, to provoke a conversation. Politics can and should be fun.’

Many questions from the audience followed, including one about what people in the Good Hope Territory do for fun … The usual, was the answer. But I doubt that they have such fabulous book launches 🙂

Thank you to Nick and Refilwe for the enticing conversation. To 6 Spin Street for hosting! To all who attended! And to our amazing Book Lounge for EVERYTHING!

Enjoy the thought-provoking read!

Karina Author, Book, Event

The launch of GOOD HOPE by Nick Clelland

One month before our elections, on 29 April 2024, we are launching Good Hope. Nick Clelland‘s daring debut novel takes us on an imaginative journey to the heart of an unsettling alternative reality where the Western Cape is an independent country. The Good Hope Territory is entering its next elections cycle which could potentially unseat the governing party and see a new First Minister voted into power. On the surface of things, this is a well-functioning state with a booming economy. But at what cost? And what are the people vying for power prepared to sweep under the Mother City’s table cloth to achieve their goals?

Please join us for the launch of this fast-paced, intriguing novel that will make you see the present in a new light.

Nick will be in conversation with Refilwe Moloto.

Please note the venue: 6 Spin Street 

THE WESTERN CAPE IS NOW AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY.
SUCCESSFUL, SAFE,
MURDEROUS

Lisa Robinson has moved from Durban to Cape Town to be with Grant, the prospective next First Minister of the Good Hope Territory. The GHT is the safest and most prosperous country in the southern hemisphere – at a price. Citizens contract to be tracked by drones, executions are synchronised to the Noon Gun and only those with qualifications are permitted to vote in the Qualified Franchise system. Life here is picture-perfect. The Mother City is pristine. Everyone has a job. Tourism is booming. But this shiny new state has decided that Lisa is a problem, and problems here disappear quickly and quietly.

‘A riveting read and a scary glimpse into what happens when liberty is traded for order. Unputdownable.’ — GEORDIN HILL-LEWIS

Karina Book

Karavan Press in 2023

At the end of last year, I knew for the first time in four years that Karavan Press would make it, that we were here to stay, and that we would thrive. But not even in my wildest dreams could I have predicted the insane year that we would have in 2023. For most of the twelve months, whenever someone asked me how many books we’d published or how many books we were still working on, I was afraid to count – I thought that if I counted, I would not be able to go on. It was only towards the end of November that I braved the numbers, and although we still had a few projects on the go, I went into a temporary state of paralysis and took a break. Personal circumstances (loss, real and potential, and complicated grief) contributed to the mental professional block, and I did let a few balls, or rather books, fall … But as the year comes to an end, after a short Festive Season rest, I am emerging from the exhaustion and plan to pace myself better in the new year.

In 2023, I worked with over a hundred different authors – mainly as publisher and editor, but also as mentor and friend – and as publisher, editor and distributor, I was involved in the publication of twenty-two individual books, two issues of a literary magazine (I resigned from all of my functions at New Contrast last year, but helped with two issues of the transition) and FLASH, a chapbook. We published seventeen books (three of them are debuts: Michael Boyd’s The Weight of Shade, Frankie Murrey’s Everyone Dies and Beatrice Willoughby’s So,) at Karavan Press in 2023, and one more is already printed and ready for release in early 2024.

A few of last year’s titles were nominated for awards this year: Joy Watson’s The Other Me, Lester Walbrugh’s Elton Baajties and Stephen Symon’s Small Souls. Additionally, Michael Boyd and Nick Mulgrew were nominated for literary awards with their short stories. Heartfelt congratulations, you brilliant, wonderful people!

Earlier this year, Héloïse Press, a Canterbury-based indie publisher of literary fiction specialised in contemporary female narrative, has acquired Breaking Milk by Dawn Garisch, one of Karavan Press’s first titles. Thank you to Aina and Catrina for making it happen. We cannot wait to see the UK edition make its appearance next year.

In August, we celebrated Sindiwe Magona’s 80th birthday with the publication of Sindiwe’s Gift (compiled by Thokozile Sayedwa and Nancy Richards), a collection of personal essays by people whose lives Sindiwe has touched throughout her illustrious career, and launched Karavan Stories, a workshop and anthology project that resulted in the publication of Tiger: Karavan Stories 2023. It was such a joyous project to work on that I decided to do Karavan Stories 2024 – theme to be decided by workshop participants. Watch this space …

Together with the Rosebank Writers and The Red Wheelbarrow, especially Kerry Hammerton and Melissa Sussens, we organised the Festival of Poetry, and it was such a gigantic success that it might return in one form or another next year. Thank you to Kerry and Melissa for your stellar work! Those of you who are missing the Karavan Press Literary Festival – have no fear, it will return with a bang in March 2024.

None of it would have been possible without the editors (especially Joanne Hichens, Finuala Dowling, Joy Watson), designers (Monique Cleghorn, Stephen Symons, Nick Mulgrew, Jennifer Jacobs, Tamara Isles, Luami Calitz), proofreaders (Nancy Richards, Mervyn Sloman, John Maytham), printers (Grant, Tim and Gavin of Castle Graphics – I know you moved mountains for Karavan Press – thank you; and Douglas of The Printing Press – what would I do without you?), distributors (Tamsin, Phil, Siya, Yaya, Nolu, Jayden – you all rock!), booksellers (special gratitude to Liberty Books, The Book Lounge, Love Books, Clarke’s Bookshop, EB Cavendish), festival and event organisers (a special shout out to Salon Hecate at Art Point Noordhoek and Woman Zone Cape Town), newspaper editors and book reviewers, literary award judges, and our amazing literary agent, Catrina Wessels.

I work with authors who are not only super-talented storytellers, but also good people whose presence in my life makes my heart fill with appreciation. Thank you to all of you for your words, creativity, kindness, understanding and patience, and for allowing me to share your stories with our Readers!

And tons of gratitude to our Readers! Without you, Karavan Press would only be a dream.

My deepest gratitude to all, but especially to John, Krystian, Mom, Joanne, Christy, Mervyn and Craig. Your support keeps me going against all odds, and those odds have never been terribly great for independent publishers … And yet, here we are!

If I forgot someone, please forgive me and know that my gratitude to all who have contributed to the wonder of this year is endless.

Happy writing and reading in 2024!

Ancient paths, new literary journeys …