Karina Author, Book, Event, Festival

Karavan Press authors at the Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees

We are heading to Stellenbosch for the annual Woordfees that is taking place between 3 and 11 October this year.

Two authors feature with their Karavan Press titles on the programme, Erika Viljoen and Louis Viljoen:

MONDAY, 5 OCTOBER 2026, 11:30 | EasyEquities Skrywerskamer
Louis Viljoen: Selected Plays

As dramaturg is Louis Viljoen bekend vir sy fyn, ingewikkelde taalgebruik en die ongemaklike intimiteit in sy dramas wat gehore vasgenael hou. Die versamelbundel Selected Playsbring vir die eerste keer tien van Viljoen se kragtigste toneelstukke byeen. Die aktrise Emma Kotze, een van Viljoen se gereelde medewerkers, gesels met die dramaturg oor die vakmanskap, chaos en die aard van die Suid-Afrikaanse teater, asook die uitdagings om sy donker werk op te voer.

TUESDAY, 6 OCTOBER 2026, 14:30 | EasyEquities Skrywerskamer
Aggressiewe water

Erika Viljoen se memoires, Aggressiewe water, is gebore uit briewe wat sy aan familie en vriende geskryf het toe die gesin uitgewyk het na ’n stuk veld in die Klein-Karoo waar niemand anders nog permanent gewoon het nie. Wat vir baie mense net ’n droom is, het vir haar gesin ’n werklikheid geword – met al die swoeg en sweet wat daarmee saamgaan. Erika se kind, Roland du Preez, kunstenaar, akteur en skrywer van die toneelstuk Rescue Remedy, tree met haar in gesprek.

Also featured on the programme are authors Lethokuhle Msimang and Zubayr Charles – Lethokuhle with the short film Soil and Grass, written, directed and narrated by her; and Zubayr with his novel, Haram (JB Publishers), and his poetry collection, the sad boy’s starter pack and other poems (Jacana). Lethokuhle published The Frightened and Zubayr published Please, don’t call me moffie with Karavan Press.

3 OCTOBER 2026, 13:30 | Road House Cinema at The Neelsie
Soil and Grass

Soil and Grass follows three traditional artisans in KwaZulu-Natal: a wire basket maker; a potter; and a palm weaver, whose practices move between rural heritage and urban adaptation. As materials are collected, transformed, and re-created, the film traces how knowledge persists in the midst of displacement. Interwoven with a personal story of departure and return, Soil and Grass reflects on what of loneliness, uncertainty, abandonment, survives in the search for a true sense of home. It is also a meditation on women who create alone.

Director, Writer, Narrator Lethokuhle Msimang
Cinematographer Thebe Gee
Editor Kgaugelo Mpyana
Sound Yang Wen Liang

3 OCTOBER 2026, 17:30 | EasyEquities Skrywerskamer

Writers on Writers: The Young Guns with Mia Arderne (How to Stop Being a Naai) and Zubayr Charles (Haram)

4 OCTOBER 2026, 16:00 | EasyEquities Skrywerskamer

Three Part Harmony with Sarah Uheida (Not This Tender), Paula Fourie (Inked in Bone) and Zubayr Charles (the sad boy’s starter pack and other poems)

Full programme: WOORDFEES

Karina Author, Book, Event

Feminist Readers Book Club: The Frightened by Lethokuhle Msimang

The chosen book for the next Feminist Readers Book Club read is The Frightened by Lethokuhle Msimang. The book club will meet at The Book Lounge on 25 June 2025, 5.30 for 6PM. Can’t wait!

In this lyrical, fragmented novella, Lethokuhle Msimang uses autobiographical and poetic interventions to lead the reader through landscapes of loss and longing, travelling between France, China, Spain and South Africa, to explore the troubled terrain of leaving and finding home. At once exhilarating, heart-breaking and haunting, The Frightened speaks to the complexity of relationships, the pain of love, the effects of trauma, the necessity and constant work of healing, and the unfulfillable wish to feel a true sense of belonging. It is the story of finding one’s voice amidst inherited violence, and the importance of art and creativity in that process.

Karina Author, Book, Literary Awards

The 2024 Sunday Times Literary Awards Fiction longlist

The 2024 Sunday Times Literary Awards longlists have been announced on Sunday, and the Fiction Prize longlist features four Karavan Press titles as well as one title we distribute locally:

Congratulations to Mike, Andrew, Sarah, Nick, Lethu and all other longlisted Authors!

FICTION PRIZE

This is the 21st year of the Sunday Times fiction prize. The criteria stipulate that the winning novel should be one of “rare imagination and style … a tale so compelling as to become an enduring landmark of contemporary fiction”.

JUDGES

Siphiwo Mahala – Chair

Mahala is an award-winning author, playwright and academic, with a PhD in English Literature. He is the author of the novel, When a Man Cries (2007), two short story collections, African Delights and Red Apple Dreams and Other Stories, and two critically acclaimed plays, The House of Truth and Bloke and His American Bantu. His latest book Can Themba: The Making and Breaking of the Intellectual Tsotsi (2022), won the Creative Non-Fiction Award at the SA Literary Awards. He is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Johannesburg, Senior Fellow at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study and editor of Imbiza Journal for African Writing.

Michele Magwood

In her long career Magwood has worked in radio, magazines and television and for 20 years was the Books Editor of the Sunday Times. She is the winner of two Mondi awards and the SALA award for literary journalism. A sought-after interviewer at book festivals, she currently works as a writer and editor and assesses manuscripts for publishers. She writes a books column for Business Day Wanted magazine. Magwood has a BA Honours degree from UKZN.

Dr Alma-Nalisha Cele

Cele is an experienced doctor with a demonstrated history of working in the pharmaceutical & health care industry. She is skilled in clinical skills, quality patient care, analytical skills, communication, and medicine. She holds a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery – MBBCH focused in Medicine from University of the Witwatersrand and a postgraduate diploma (cum laude) in medicine development at University of Stellenbosch. She is also the co-founder of The Cheeky Natives, a literary podcast primarily focused on the review, curatorship and archiving of black literature. In 2019, she was named one of the Mandela Washington Fellows to undertake a prestigious fellowship in the United States. She was also named one of the Mail & Guardian’s top 200 Young South Africans in 2019.

Karina Author, Prize

Lethokuhle Msimang receives the Comparative Literature Master Academic Achievement Award from Dartmouth College

Congratulations, Lethu!

The prize is annually awarded to one MA student who best embodies the academic values that the Program in Comparative Literature particularly cherishes: original and critical thinking; commitment to learning; respect for, and interest in, the work of others. A monetary award and a diploma recognize both collegiality and intellectual excellence. In May, after the students’ final presentations, a committee composed of the Chair, the Graduate Director, and the instructors of COLT 100, COLT 101 and COLT 103 decide to whom to bestow this award.

Karina Author, Book, Event, Festival

Lethokuhle Msimang at the Durban International Book Fair, 9-13 August 2023

The Durban International Book Fair is taking place between 9 and 13 August, and Lethokuhle Msimang will be returning to her hometown to speak about The Frightened.

9 August:

12:00-13:00 | Lethokuhle Msimang The Frightened (Alan Paton Stage)

16:00-17:00 | Black women in the arts: challenging the notion of subservience, with Gcina Mhlophe, LethokuhleMsimang and Mbali Malimela (Phyllis Naidoo Stage)

Click here for the full programme: DIBF 2023

Karina Author, Book, Event

Pretoria launch of THE FREIGHTENED by Lethokuhle Msimang

The Frightened by Lethokuhle Msimang is partly set in Paris. Lethokuhle herself lived and studied in Paris and has continued learning French at the Alliance Française de Pretoria. The institute has invited her to launch her novella with them. If you are in Pretoria on 20 July, this is your opportunity to meet Lethokuhle and to celebrate the launch of her stunning book with her. She will be in conversation with Thobile Ndimande.

Karina Author, Book, Event

Cape Town launch of THE FRIGHTENED by Lethokuhle Msimang

We are thrilled to announce that Lethokuhle Msimang will be in Cape Town on 13 July and will be launching her novella, The Frightened, at The Book Lounge. She will be in conversation with Mohale Mashigo. Need we say more? You have got to be there! RSVP details below:

Lethokuhle won’t be joining us for the Open Book Festival later this year, so if you would like to meet her and get your copy of The Frightened signed, this is the opportunity!

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!