Karina Author, Book, Event, Festival

ELGIN POETRY FESTIVAL: 24-26 July 2026

Together with Cheverells Farm and Liberty Books, we are delighted to invite you to the inaugural Elgin Poetry Festival in the stunning Elgin! Between 24 and 26 July 2026, Cheverells Farm and Liberty Books will be home to a series of events – discussions, readings, a launch and a workshop – celebrating poetry with all poetry lovers. The festival will commence with a Friday night fine dining & poetry evening and continue over the weekend.

Friday, 24 July 2026

18:30 for 19:00 Cheverells Farm: Friday night fine dining & poetry evening, featuring John Maytham reading words by Finuala Dowling.

An unforgettable evening of fine dining and poetry at The Cheverells Farm Shed as we celebrate the launch of the very first Elgin Poetry Festival on Friday, 24 July 2026.

Your ticket includes a welcome drink, delicious canapés, and a beautifully curated three-course meal – all enjoyed alongside a special live poetry reading by John Maytham, who will bring the words of Finuala Dowling to life in an intimate and atmospheric setting.

Proceeds from the ticket sales for this event will go to an NPO in Grabouw called Siphila Sonke. Funds will be donated to their Kids Club, which provides approximately 100 children a place for creative and academic stimulation in a safe and fun environment.

BOOK YOUR TICKET HERE: FINE DINING AND POETRY EVENING

On Saturday we are hosting the following events (for the free events please book your ticket as the numbers are limited):

Saturday, 25 July 2026

At The Shed, Cheverells Farm

09:00–10:00 Poetry as Resistance

10:15–11:15 Writing Between Languages

11:30–12:30 Writing What’s Hard

14:00–15:00 The Geography of Poetry

15:15–16:45 OPEN MIC (free event)

At Liberty Books, Peregrine Farm Stall

18:00–19:30 Karavan Press poetry anthology book launch (free event, booking essential)

BOOK YOUR TICKETS HERE: ELGIN POETRY FESTIVAL

Sunday, 26 July 2026

10:00–13:00 An intimate poetry workshop with Kerry Hammerton and Melissa Sussens.

BOOK BY EMAILING KARAVAN PRESS: POETRY WORKSHOP

Workshop fee: R550. Tickets are limited. Please book early to avoid disappointment.

For visitors wanting to stay in Elgin during the Elgin Poetry Festival weekend, Cheverells Farm offers cosy cottages … soft linens, warm light, and peaceful farm mornings included. From 1 May 2026, book two nights and enjoy your third night on Cheverells Farm.

Slow down, breathe in the fresh air, and savour the simple pleasures of farm life.

BOOK HERE: CHEVERELLES FARM ACCOMMODATION

Karina Book, Event

Flash writing workshops with Kerry Hammerton

A wonderful opportunity to explore a genre that teaches you how to tell great stories within a limited word count. Creativity, precision, discipline and care are needed to write flashes, and all these skills allow you to hone your craft as a writer like nothing else.

Please join Kerry for one or both of these workshops, and have the opportunity to submit your flash to one of her In Other Stories anthologies, published annually by Karavan Press.

Karina Book, Event, Festival

Karavan Press and Indeed Books authors at the Cape Flats Book Festival 2026

The Cape Flats Book Festival 2026 is just around the corner and it is the perfect start to the literary festival calendar of the new year. A few Karavan Press and Indeed Books authors feature on the wonderful programme that has something to offer for every literary desire. We can’t wait for these two days of bookish encounters. Please join us!

SATURDAY, 31 January 2026

10:45-11:25

13:30-14:10

14:25-15:05

15:20-16:00

SUNDAY, 1 February 2026

12:45-13:25

13:40-14:20

Click here for the entire programme:

CAPE FLATS BOOK FESTIVAL 2026

We are looking forward to seeing you all there!

Karina Author, Book

Karavan Press title: IN OTHER STORIES 2025 edited by Kerry Hammerton

‘I am excited by the diversity of writing that is in the anthology, and the variety of stories. There are themes around birth, relationships, our society and death. There are African fables, historical pieces, endings and beginnings, humour and satire, surrealism.’

— Kerry Hammerton

Contributors

Rachel May Ferriman | Sarah Buchner | Megan Kay Rossouw | Máire Fisher | Karina M. Szczurek | Kerry Hammerton | Michelle A. Meyer | Jana van Niekerk | Jen Thorpe | Nontobeko Mtshali | Anna Hug | Karen Jennings | Chantal Stewart | Bongani Kona | Siphosethu Siwaphiwe Zazela | Stephen Symons | Michael Boyd | Limor Kay | Melissa Sussens | Sahra Ryklief | Anne Schlebusch | Tiisetso Tlelima | Petros Isaakidis

ISBN: 978-1-0492-1509-9

Publication date: November 2025

Karina Author, Book, Festival

Karavan Press at the Madibaland @ BookBedonnerd Literary Festival

We are heading to Richmond again at the end of this month and hoping that many readers from across the country will follow. It is time for the Madibaland @ BookBedonnerd Literary Festival! Taking place between 30 October and 1 November, the festival brings together a wonderful mix of writers and readers.

Among the participants are Karavan Press authors Chantal Stewart, Kerry Hammerton and Holland House Books’ Andile Cele, whose wonderful debut novel, Braids & Migraines, we help distribute in South Africa.

THURSDAY, 30 OCTOBER 2025

11:30 ANDILE CELE

FRIDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2025

9:30 KERRY HAMMERTON

SATURDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2025

9:30 CHANTAL STEWART

For more details and the full programme, see:

Madibaland @ BookBedonnerd Literary Festival

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Karina Author, Event

WRITING SHORT with Kerry Hammerton and the Life Righting Collective

Sometimes we have a personal story we want to tell but it feels too large or too overwhelming. What would it mean if you wrote that story as a piece of flash? Join writer and writing facilitator Kerry Hammerton to explore the art of writing flash creative non-fiction/memoir and fiction, or writing short. We will read interesting examples of flash and use them as a stepping stone to generate writing. The workshop will be interactive with a number of exercises and creative ways of exploring writing ideas. You will leave with a number of pieces of writing that you can edit and incorporate into a larger piece of work.

“Writing is a mode of reading is a mode of writing is a mode of thinking is a mode of feeling.” Lance Olsen

For more details see: Life Righting Collective