Please join us for another Blown Away by Books event at the Fish Hoek Library on 18 April 2026, at 9.30AM – this year celebrating Secrets, the latest Karavan Stories anthology (2025) and the stories that have flown into and from the project. Secrets contributors Lucienne Argent, Christine Coates, Máire Fisher, Michelle A. Meyer, Helen Nevin, Joëlle Searle and Jana van Niekerk will be in conversation with Karina M. Szczurek about the anthology and their other writings. Now in its fourth year, the Karavan Stories project has gathered a wonderful community of writers who have continued writing and collaborating together. Come and be inspired by their remarkable stories, those already written and those in the making!
SECRETS is the result of the Karavan Stories Workshop & Anthology project, now in its third year.
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 you are holding in your hands took shape. We chose the theme for the anthology – secrets – within the group. Contributors could work with it 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 ‘secrets’ in wonderfully intriguing ways, inviting us to turn the pages with curiosity, anticipation and, occasionally, with a sinking feeling of dread. I would like to thank all contributing authors for embarking on this journey with Karavan Press: your stories confirm something about local authors that has never really been a secret – you rock! A big thank you to Monique Cleghorn and Stephen Symons for the stunning design of our anthology. To our readers: enjoy!
Karina M. Szczurek Cape Town, December 2025
Contributors: Lucienne Argent, Zubayr Charles, Christine Coates, Máire Fisher, Nina Geraghty, Rob Glenister, Merle Levin, Michelle A. Meyer, Firdose Moonda, Helen Nevin, Joëlle Searle, Jana van Niekerk
After the success of Tiger: Karavan Stories 2023 and Temperature: Karavan Stories 2024, be part of the thirdKaravan Stories anthology! We will meet again for a writing workshop at the end of April and together analyse what makes a good short story, read examples, go through a few writing exercises, begin exploring ideas for new stories and in the following months write, edit and compile an anthology of stories which will be published by Karavan Press.
WORKSHOP DATE: Saturday, 26 April 2025, 9:00 – 15:00
VENUE: 6 Banksia Road, Rosebank, 7700 Cape Town
PUBLICATION DATE: October / November 2025
FEE: R3 900
Includes: workshop, catering during the day of the workshop, guidance and feedback, editing, proofreading, 5 copies of the anthology and the option to submit your next manuscript to Karavan Press.
Maximum number of participants: 14 (ONLY 4 SPOTS STILL AVAILABLE, book as soon as possible to avoid disappointment).
Karina M. Szczurek is the author and (co)editor of numerous works of fiction and non-fiction. She won the MML Literature Award in the Category English Drama in 2012, received the Thomas Pringle Award for a portfolio of ad hoc reviews from the English Academy of Southern Africa in 2018 and the HSS Award for Best Fiction Edited Volume in 2024. She is a board member of Short Story Day Africa. In 2019, she founded Karavan Press, an independent publishing house, and a year later, established the Philida Literary Award.
karavanpress.com 