The iLembe Book Festival (IBF) is a collaborative literary event that brings together readers, writers, and creatives from the iLembe District Municipality and surrounding communities. The festival features panel discussions, a school outreach programme, poetry workshops, and a slam poetry event, all aimed at fostering a deeper appreciation for literature and the spoken word.
This year’s festival is taking place on Saturday, 25 October 2025. Karen Jennings and Andile Cele feature on the programme. For more details, see: iLembe Book Festival.
Happy publication day to Andile Cele and Holland House Books! Today, Andile’s debut novel, Braids & Migraines, runner-up in The Island Prize for unpublished African novelists 2023, is officially making its way into the world. Together with Protea Distribution, we are delighted to be the South African distribution partner for the moving debut novel. Please join us on Thursday, 24 April 2025, for the Cape Town launch of Braids & Migraines at The Book Lounge. Andile will be in conversation with Karen Jennings, founder of The Island Prize. Can’t wait!
WE ARE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THAT KARAVAN PRESS IS THE SOUTH AFRICAN DISTRIBUTION PARTNER FOR BRAIDS & MIGRAINES BY ANDILE CELE, RUNNER-UP FOR THE ISLAND PRIZE2023.
ABOUT THE BOOK
“A novel of insight and emotion. Cele has the talent to both shatter and uplift, making her an invaluable new voice in South African literature.” The Island Prize Judges
“The beauty of this novel is that while it takes a close-up look at human strife, in doing so it shines a light on the humanity we all share.” From the Foreword by Rachel Edwards
When Nomandla is awarded a scholarship to attend the prestigious Cameron House for Girls in Durban, she thinks her life will improve. Instead it falls apart. Growing up in Ziyabuya township, Nomandla battles poverty, racism, and her own mental health. She is pursued by visions which result in her being hospitalised, and is then made to accompany her father on Saturdays to his gardening job at the home of the Smith family. It is here that she first encounters Casey, a girl who will play a significant role in turning her life upside down, destroying her hope of a better future. Meanwhile, at Cameron House, Nomandla learns that, as a scholarship girl, she is expected to showcase gratitude as well as her culture, being regarded as little more than a display of transformation, unity and acceptance. Unfortunately, the reality is very different.
Andile Cele’s beautiful debut novel considers the complexities around identity, its ties to shame, grief, and to South Africa’s painful history. Braids & Migraines follows Nomandla as she comes to a place of personal understanding and acceptance, without compromise.
South African distribution partner: Karavan Press
Publisher: Holland House Books, UK
Publication date: 17 April 2025
ISBN: 978-1-7391047-6-4
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ANDILE CELE is a writer and communications specialist, born and raised in Stanger, KwaZulu-Natal. She was born in 1986, when apartheid was nearing its end – to a mother who has worked as a domestic worker all her adult life. She has three siblings; one of them, a brother, is autistic and nonverbal. Andile’s advocacy for mental health awareness stems from the experiences they faced as a family – with a member who was and still is, for the most part, misunderstood. Andile has a degree in Journalism from the Tshwane University of Technology, and a Creative Writing and Theory of Literature degree from the University of South Africa. She is an MA candidate at Stellenbosch University, where she is examining the depiction of intergenerational trauma in selected South African women’s writing. She is the current holder of the Gwen Knowles-Williams Bursary, administered by the English Academy of Southern Africa. She dedicates her writing to her mother. Her short fiction has been published in Botsotso and Short.Sharp.Stories.
If you are a bookseller, please contact BOOKSITE to order copies of Braids & Migraines. If you are a reader, please ask your local bookshop to order the book for you via Booksite.
WE ARE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THAT KARAVAN PRESS IS THE SOUTH AFRICAN DISTRIBUTION PARTNER FOR SAND ROSES BY HAMZA KOUDRI, RUNNER-UP FOR THE ISLAND PRIZE2022.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Tourists know it as the City of Joy. For Ouled Nail dancers, Bousaada is a city of horrors.
It is 1931 when two sisters arrive in Bousaada bursting with dreams of becoming successful dancers. But the city, occupied by the ruthless French colonial army, changes their lives forever.
When they kill a soldier in self-defence, Fahima and Salima must outsmart the French Colonel who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth. The sisters are driven further into a cycle of violence with every attempt to hide their crime. Risking their lives and the lives of their loved ones, the dancers find themselves at the heart of a civilizational clash.
Sand Roses is a tale of resistance, sisterhood and the shameful past of two colliding nations. This extraordinarily immersive narrative thrusts its reader into the Algerian city of Bousaada during the 1930s and the story of the Nailiya dancers.
“… an extraordinarily immersive narrative, and a fascinating story of the little-known Ouled Nail dancers.”
HAMZA KOUDRI has an MA in English Literature and Civilization and has been working in education and international development since 2008. Research for his novel took the better part of a decade, seeking traces of a muted past between the folds of visual documentation and oral histories. In 2022, Sand Roses was shortlisted for the Island Prize for unpublished African authors. Currently serving as the Country Director with the British Council in Algeria, he oversees a portfolio of English, STEM, higher education and cultural programmes, working closely with public sector teachers and institutions. Over the years, he has created and led courses and projects for youth and educators across the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region and beyond.
During a year-long fellowship in the United States, he helped establish a mentorship programme for a social equity course at Penn State University and a teacher training certificate program for Indiana University. He also took a creative writing course with award-winning author, Elizabeth Kadetsky, during which time he started working on Sand Roses.
If you are a bookseller, please contact BOOKSITE to order copies of Sand Roses. If you are a reader, please ask your local bookshop to order the book for you via Booksite.
Please join us as we celebrate the official launch of Glass Tower by Sarah Isaacs, the inaugural Island Prize winner, published by Holland House in the UK and distributed locally by Karavan Press. Sarah will be in conversation with the prize’s founder, Karen Jennings. Let’s give both a warm welcome at The Book Lounge!
Submissions for the inaugural The Island Prize opened in September of 2021. By the time the submission window ended in mid-December, we had received more than 120 entries from all over Africa. There is a myth that there is only one type of storytelling in Africa. We can say with confidence that this is not the case. The submissions we saw were not only written in a variety of styles, but also included different genres and subjects, depicting people and experiences from all walks of life. You need only look at the shortlist to see a sample of these! However, before we get to the shortlist, we must thank our volunteer readers who spent many hours going through submissions and who helped to whittle them down to a longlist of ten. At this point the judges – Karen Jennings, Obinna Udenwe and Hilda Twongyeirwe – began reading the manuscripts and were pleased to note that the ten longlisted authors came from all over the continent, with the following countries represented: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Algeria. After careful reading, the judges were able to agree unanimously on the five manuscripts selected for the shortlist.
And here are the winners:
WINNER OF THE ISLAND PRIZE 2022
“Glass Tower” by Sarah Isaacs
SECOND PLACE
“A Darkness with Her Name on It” by Doreen Anyango
THIRD PLACE
The other three novels could not be separated and so we have three in third place.
“As African writers, we are often faced with a double dose of challenges. Firstly, getting published within African countries can be incredibly difficult because local publishers are often constrained by finances. Secondly, for many writers getting published overseas is almost impossible because the rest of the world has certain ideas of what an African story should be. Having experienced these challenges first-hand – being told that a novel is ‘too African’ or ‘not African enough’ – I know how important it is that stories from Africa be given a wide variety of platforms so that they can be shared at home and abroad without the need to fit certain moulds. I am proud to be part of The Island Prize for a Debut Novel from Africa – a competition where the judges are African and where the winners have an opportunity of being published both in the UK and in South Africa. This is one step towards bridging the gap between here and there, us and them. In fact, it is through prizes like these that authors across the continent can gain the confidence to tell stories as they wish. The hope is that, with time, such stories will become appreciated across the globe, without first being labelled as an exception or a surprise.”
karavanpress.com 