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, Festival

Karavan Press and Friends at Open Book Festival 2023

In their latest newsletter, The Book Lounge, wrote the following about Karavan Press:

Karavan Press is a small publishing house owned and run by Karina Szczurek, seriously punching above its weight. We are so grateful to Karina for publishing so many wonderful books that we thought we should shine a light on some of the books she is responsible for that will be featured at Open Book Festival:

Everyone Dies by Frankie Murrey ~ An exquisite debut collection of stories – I will be cajoling Frankie on to the stage to talk about Everyone Dies. – Mervyn

A Crowded Lonely Walk by Sipho Banda ~ In this riveting poetry collection, Sipho Banda delves into the daily happenings of the ubiquitous but anonymous working class, and restores dignity to those whose lived experiences so often go overlooked. – Belinda

Glass Tower by Sarah Isaacs ~ Glass Tower is the winner of the inaugural Island Prize for debut fiction from Africa.

Inside your body there are flowers by Diane Awerbuck ~ an incredibly versatile writer who returns to the genre for which she is best known – the short story – in this new collection which is nothing short of superb.

The Bitterness of Olives is set in Gaza and Israel and is Andrew’s finest novel. Empathetic, thought provoking, beautifully written with the pace of a thriller. – Mervyn

Striving for Social Equity edited by Joy Watson and Ogochuku Nzewi ~ an invaluable gathering of voices touching on the very real challenges facing South Africans today.

What Remains by Dawn Garisch ~ new collection of stories from one of our best-loved writers that deals with relationships, ageing and so much more.

Karina will be participating in a discussion about the future of publishing.

The Book Lounge

We are immensely grateful for the encouragement and support! And this is how we will be “punching” at Open Book Festival 2023:

Open Book Festival 2023 Programme

Watch out for Karavan Press authors and Friends (we are lucky distribution partners for Glass Tower by Sarah Isaacs and Cat Therapy by Gail Gilbride):

Book your tickets here:

Open Book Festival – Webtickets

Karina Author, Book

Shift from Storyteller to Story Seller in 3 Steps

Fellow Authors,

Do you have boxes of your own finished books gathering dust? And would you love to get them into the hands of readers? But you cringe when you hear the word Marketing and you have to fight the urge to apologise every time you do a post about your book? 

How to find your readers and sell more books?

We’re having a free webinar on how to Shift from Storyteller to Story Seller in 3 Steps, with Cathy Park Kelly, author of two popular memoirs, and independent publisher Karavan Press. Together, we’ll show how you can sell more books without selling your soul. 

Click on this link to register for Wednesday, 16th August, 6 – 7pm: 

Shift from Storyteller to Story Seller in 3 Steps

Karina Author, Book, Event

Rosebank Writers: Book talk with Kerry Hammerton

Photo credit: Digby Young

A poetry morning next to the fireplace. Rosebank Writers and Friends gathered yesterday next to a cosy fire to listen to Kerry Hammerton speak about and read from her latest poetry collection, afterwards. I (Karina) had the privilege to ask the questions. It was a beautiful way to begin the weekend: hearing Kerry speak about her work was nourishment for the soul and the mind.

Thank you to all who attended, especially all the Rosebank Writers. Thank you also to Kim Gurney for recording the conversation and Digby Young for the photographs.

The Rosebank Writers have been meeting for almost a year now and are going from strength to strength.

All photographs: Digby Young

Karina Author, Book, Festival

Kingsmead Book Fair 2023

Another highly successful Kingsmead Book Fair (KBF) is behind us. And we had so much literary fun! Joanne Hichens, Lester Walbrugh and I were on the same flight going up to Johannesburg. We all spoke at the festival – Lester and I about Elton Baatjies, and Joanne and I about Fluid: The Freedom to Be.

We ‘met’ Joy Watson and Lethokuhle Msimang at the airport on the bookshelves of Exclusive Books.

What is the best way of passing flight time? Reading, of course.

We joined Joy on the morning of the book fair and dived into the busy, amazing programme of this year’s KBF that had something to offer for EVERYONE.

Authors met up in the Green Room for refreshments and a bit of rest between the fascinating sessions.

Exclusive Books pop-up shop at the KBF. Two of our titles sold out at the book fair!

It was wonderful to meet Jarred Thompson and Lerato Moletsane in person – both contributed to Fluid: The Freedom to Be.

Thank you to the organisers of the book fair, to everyone who came to listen to us, to all who bought books and made the KBF 2023 such a joyous book fair. Already counting the days until KBF 2024!

Happy reading!