Please join an online masterclass with the Jacana Literary Foundation, presented by Anna Stroud, author of the award-winning Who Looks Inside, on Wednesday, 24 June, at 19:00 via Zoom. Tickets are R150.
Anna Stroud offers practical advice and exercises to help aspiring fiction authors tap into their hidden selves. Learn how to fight imposter syndrome by getting out of your head and into your work. Bring pen and paper for a hands-on 1-hour fiction writing workshop, followed by 30 minutes of reflection, sharing (if you want to) and questions.
The University of Johannesburg Prize (UJ Prize) for South African Writing is pleased to announce the shortlist for books published in 2024. The Prize opened for submissions on 26 November 2024 and closed on 28 February 2025.
The UJ Prize was established in 2006 for South African writing and is not genre-specific.
We trust our panel of judges to do a fair and rigorous evaluation of submitted texts and select the most outstanding books. Following an intensive adjudication process, the judges have shortlisted the following books in their respective categories:
Debut Prize
Morafe: Person, Family and Nation in Colonial Bechuanaland by Khumisho Moguerane
Weeping Becomes a River by Siphokazi Jonas
Who Looks Inside by Anna Stroud
Main Prize
Keorapetse Kgositsile and the Black Arts Movement by Uhuru Portia Phalafala
The Comrade’s Wife by Barbara Boswell
The Lost Love of Akbar Manzil by Shubnum Khan
The prize money is R75,000 (Seventy-Five Thousand Rand only) for the main prize, and R45,000 (Forty-Five Thousand Rand only) for the debut prize. The final results will be announced before the end of September 2025. For more information, please contact the UJ Prize coordinator, Prof Siphiwo Mahala via email: siphiwom@uj.ac.za
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Congratulations to all shortlisted authors, especially to Anna Stroud! We are thrilled that her debut novel, Who Looks Inside, is shortlisted for the UJ Debut Prize.
Earlier this year, Anna won the HSS Award for Best Fiction Emerging Author.
Thank you, Anna, for publishing with Karavan Press. It is a joy to celebrate you and this exquisite novel.
The Sunday Times Literary Awards longlists have been announced and we are delighted that they feature five Karavan Press titles. Congratulations to all longlisted authors!
Thank you to all who make these awards possible!
Mountains of gratitude to Karavan Press authors on the lists:
FICTION Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings(co-published with Holland House Books) Who Looks Inside by Anna Stroud Good Hope by Nick Clelland
NON-FICTION In Silence My Heart Speaks by Thobeka Yose Dayspring by C. J. Driver (co-published with uHlanga Press)
The literary festival season continues and we are delighted to announce that the following Karavan Press authors will be participating in the Kingsmead Book Fair this year:
09:30-10:00 DOT TO DOT | The Book Room
Meet the Freckolions and the Spots who are bitterly arguing over Face’s vast landscape. Then one day an alien craft descends on Face and sends the Freckolions and Spots into panic! SA actress Lisa Trudoux introduces her first charming and quirky children’s book Dot To Dot which teaches kids the invaluable lessons of self-love and kindness towards others in the most enchanting way.
09:30-10:30 WRITING OUR PAIN: Contending with traumatic narratives | Chapel
Sewela Langeni (Making Friends with Feelings) provides a safe space for Jeffrey Rakabe (Led by Shepherds) and Thobeka Yose (In Silence My Heart Speaks) to chat about transferring pain to the page.
11:00-12:00 PRETTY PROTAGONISTS: Crafting heroines with humanity | Mackenzie 1
Amy Heydenrych (Chasing Marian) examines the creation of the powerful women at the centre of the works of Zukiswa Wanner (Love Marry Kill), Michelle Kekana (The Fragile Mental Health of Strong Women) and Qarnita Loxton (What’s Wrong with June?).
12:30-13:30 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: People and place in historical fiction | Lange Hall
Penny Haw (Follow Me To Africa: A Novel), Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (The Creation of Half-Broken People) and Louisa Treger (The Paris Muse) discuss facets of historical fiction – beyond the period in which it’s set – that really matter with Michael Boyd (Weight of Shade).
12:30-13:30 Life is the greatest teacher: Writing from experience | Music Centre
Merle Levin (World According to Merle: Memoir of a Deliciously Daring Granny), Costa Ayiotis (Matriarchs, Meze and the Evil Eye: A Memoir) and Glenn Orsmond (Crash and Burn: A CEO’s Crazy Adventures in the SA Airline Industry) tell Karina Szczurek (Karavan Press) about their weird uncles and the strange lady from the office.
14:30-15:30 LITERARY FITION VERSUS GENRE FICTION: What makes a book ‘literary’? | Chapel
Peter-Adrian Altini (Salt Water Pool Boy) and Charl-Pierre Naudé (The Equality of Shadows) discuss style and complexity with Craig Higginson (The Ghost of Sam Webster).
16:00-17:00 Navigating our life stories: Lessons learned and unlearned | Lange Hall
Khaya Dlanga (Life is Like That Sometimes) and Gavin Evans (Son of a Preacher Man) tell Anna Stroud (Who Looks Inside) about what they have learned while writing about themselves.
16:00-17:00 Stretching the imagination: Pushing boundaries in storytelling | Mackenzie 3
Onke Mazibuko (Canary) follows Nick Clelland (Good Hope), Siya Khumalo (The Queer Book of Revelation) and Sam Wilson (The First Murder on Mars) into the detailed, fresh worlds of their books.
16:00-17:00 Publish or perish: Women in the publishing industry | Chapel
Queen bees Karina Szczurek (Karavan Press), Melinda Ferguson (Melinda Ferguson Books) and Zukiswa Wanner (Paivapo Publishing) underline the importance of curating stories from a feminine perspective with Sewela Langeni (Book Circle Capital).
The National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences hosted its annual HSS Awards gala last night and we are thrilled to announce that four Karavan Press titles were recognised at the Awards. Congratulations to Anna Stroud, Alex Latimer, Shari Daya and Nick Clelland on your wonderful achievements!
SHORTLISTED TITLES
Land | Lines, Shari Daya in the Best Poetry sub-category.
Good Hope, Nick Clelland in the Best Fiction Novel sub-category.
WINNING TITLES
Who Looks Inside, Anna Stroud in the Best Fiction Emerging Author sub-category.
Love Stories for Ghosts, Alex Latimer in the Best Fiction Short Stories sub-category.
Congratulations to all nominated and winning authors!
Thank you to all who make the HSS Awards possible!
The Johannesburg writer Anna Stroud’s first novel, Who Looks Inside, is about family trauma and small town secrets, and stretches from South Korea to the Karoo, and finally comes to an end in Johannesburg. Nick Clelland’s novel Good Hope is set in a dystopian future where the Western Cape is an independent country. Those in power will sweep anything under the rug to maintain the illusion of a well-functioning state and booming economy. Publisher Jaco Adriaanse facilitates this meeting of North and South.
SATURDAY, 5 October, 18:00, EasyEquities Book Tent
Poets often feel obliged to write about love, but perhaps it is time to wax lyrical about the often more reliable and long-lasting love between friends instead. Invited poets bring two verses each about friendship. Is friendship indeed one soul in two bodies, or simply the one soul that will be there when your world falls apart? Bring your best friend and discover fresh insights into what makes your bond so special.
With Loftus Marais, Jolyn Phillips, André le Roux, Jaco Barnard-Naudé, Lynthia Julius, Danie Marais and Beatrice Willoughby.
Dear Readers of Joburg, The super-talented Anna Stroud is launching her stunning debut novel, Who Looks Inside, at Love Books on 19 June 2024. She will be in conversation with Michael Boyd, the author of The Weight of Shade. Please join them for this celebration! Literary love, Karavan Press
PS Do not forget to RSVP.
About the book:
The news of her mother’s death pulls Hannah back from South Korea to her childhood home in the Karoo where she discovers that she has never escaped her abusive father and passive mother. That, in fact, she has been there all along, baking bread and raising a son whose father might be a local farmer she is having an affair with. Her world unravels as she struggles to separate the life she has built for herself from the one she survived. Unsettling, eerie and evocative, Who Looks Inside explores themes of childhood trauma in a working-class Afrikaans family.
“Poetic, atmospheric and haunting—Who Looks Inside is an intricate and compelling exploration of family trauma, small-town secrets and the decisions that seal our destinies.” — JENNIFER MALEC
We are all looking forward to the nextKingsmead Book Fair, taking place at Kingsmead College on Saturday, 25 May 2024. Hope to see you there!
09:30-10:30 | Mackenzie 2
Dawn Garisch (What Remains) confirms, with Diane Awerbuck (Inside your body there are flowers), Frankie Murrey (Everyone Dies: A Series), Alex Latimer (Love Stories for Ghosts), and Barbara Ludman (Moving On), that brevity is the soul of wit. And drama. And romance.
09:30-10:30 | Mackenzie 3
Fiona Snyckers (The Hidden) asks Owen Salmon (A Weakness to Die For) and Andrew Brown (The Bitterness of Olives) to unpack the male gaze in storytelling.
12:30 – 13:30 | Music Centre Georgina Geddes asks Alistair Mackay (The Child), Craig Higginson (The Ghost of Sam Webster), Shubnum Khan (The Lost Love of Akbar Manzil) and Amy Heydenrych (Bad Luck Penny) what it is that makes stories ‘literary’.
12:30 – 13:30 | Chapel
Diane Awerbuck (Inside your body there are flowers) answers the call of nature with Adam Welz (The End of Eden), and Nick Norman (The Woodpecker Mystery: The Inevitability of the Improbable).
12:30 – 13:30 | Mornington
Kate Sidley (Katie Gayle – Julia Bird Mysteries) asks Saaleha Bhamjee (Home Scar), Anna Stroud (Who Looks Inside) and Janine Jellars (When the Filter Fades) what it takes to really own your writing space as a woman.
14:30 – 15:30 | Mornington Amy Heydenrych (Chasing Marian, Bad Luck Penny) sees if she can find a reason why the characters created by Ashling McCarthy (Down at Jika Jika Tavern), Marina Auer (Double Edged), Femi Kayode (Gaslight) and Natalie Conyer (Present Tense) need to worry about their welfare.
16:00 – 17:00 | Lange Hall Police reservist Andrew Brown (The Bitterness of Olives) guides Daniel Steyn (The Thabo Bester Story), Naledi Shange (Killer Cop – The Rosemary Ndlovu Story), Karl Kemp (Why We Kill: Mob Justice and the New Vigilantism in South Africa) and Nechama Brodie(Domestic Terror) into the minds of murderers both famous and anonymous.
16:00 – 17:00 | Music Centre
Alex Latimer (Love Stories for Ghosts) discovers if the future is fantastic or frightening with Mandla Moyo (The Fallen Angel), Sarah M Naidoo (A Remedy for Death), Alistair Mackay (The Child) and Babette Gallard (Future Imperfect).
The news of her mother’s death pulls Hannah back from South Korea to her childhood home in the Karoo where she discovers that she has never escaped her abusive father and passive mother. That, in fact, she has been there all along, baking bread and raising a son whose father might be a local farmer she is having an affair with. Her world unravels as she struggles to separate the life she has built for herself from the one she survived. Unsettling, eerie and evocative, Who Looks Inside explores themes of childhood trauma in a working-class Afrikaans family.
“Poetic, atmospheric and haunting—Who Looks Inside is an intricate and compelling exploration of family trauma, small-town secrets and the decisions that seal our destinies.” — JENNIFER MALEC
ISBN: 978-1-0672224-2-0
Publication date: May 2024
Cover artworks: Serena Moodley Anderson | Cover design: Monique Cleghorn
About the author:
ANNA STROUD loves books. Like, really loves them. Authors, too. She once travelled over two hundred kilometres by bus from Daegu to Wonju in South Korea to hear Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o speak. She’s been reading Antjie Krog since the age of eleven, even the sweary bits. She moved close to Love Books so she’d never miss a book launch. Naturally, she’d become a writer, with stories appearing in Grocott’s Mail, Cue, WordStock, The Sunday Times, Books LIVE, City Press, The Reading List, Daily Maverick, The Johannesburg Review of Books, tagged! and Business Day, among others. When she’s not writing, she’s walking her husband, Sean, and two dogs, Raven and Poe, at the park. Who Looks Inside is her debut novel.
karavanpress.com 