A furry family member went to Cat Heaven today. Smoothie did not live with us at Driekatfontein – she lived with my love – but she was also my family, and I loved her dearly. No one knows how old she was, but I always teased her that she had nineteen lives and was the ultimate survivor. She was spirited; her vet file came with a warning. We visited the vet regularly to make sure that her quality of life remained high despite diverse health- and age-related vulnerabilities. The estimate is that she was at least seventeen. When she started losing weight again earlier this month, it was difficult to believe that with the help of our wonderful vet she would not bounce back as she did so many times before, defying all odds and expectations. But she was living her nineteenth life already, and it became clear very quickly that the time to say goodbye had arrived. She had a good life. She made our lives a lot better because of her determined, devoted, loving presence. We are hurting today and missing her unbearably, but we also know that Cat Heaven is a brighter, feistier and more purring place tonight, because Smoothie has arrived.
Driving Miss Smoothie
May you rest in peace, beloved Smoothie. I miss you so much …
I recently participated in one of Gabriella Kaplan’s art workshops and LOVED the experience. If you ever thought of exploring your artistic longings, here is another opportunity:
I cannot recommend this enough. For a few weeks this was a space of exploration, musings, self-care, meditation and discovery. One of the things that I enjoyed the most was playing with a different medium than words. I love working with words, but there was something truly special about escaping into sculptures, images and collages for a few hours every week. I will let a few of the ones I created speak for themselves:
Through the workshops, I have also been inspired to continue creating visual artworks alone at home. A precious gift one can give to oneself.
If you are reading this, thank you, Gabriella! I hope to join another workshop in the near future.
The Franschhoek Valley does golden autumn like no other place I know in the world. Once again, the season was on full display during this year’s Franschhoek Literary Festival (FLF). I drove into town on Friday and could not help feeling elated just by looking at the bright reds and yellows of falling leaves bathed in the soothing morning sun. The scene was perfectly set for what was to unfold. I have never seen Franschhoek so packed during the festival. The place was heaving with writers and festivalgoers from all over …
What a pleasure to be part of the Open Book Workshop Week and to share my passion for the short story with others. I hope you will join me for one or both of the workshops I will be running:
Every time a miracle! I don’t think that I will ever be able to take holding a new book with my name on its cover for granted. The latest is FLUID: The Freedom to Be, an anthology of short stories I have co-edited with Joanne Hichens. The book is published by Tattoo Press and distributed by Karavan Press, together with Protea Distribution. After HAIR: Weaving and Unpicking Stories of Identity (Tattoo Press, 2019), it’s the second collection of stories that Joanne and I edited together, and once again it was pure literary excitement. We worked with established and emerging writers and were bowled over by the talent shining between the pages of FLUID. Thank you to all the writers who entered the Short.Sharp.Stories competition, especially the twenty included in the anthology. You are a huge inspiration! Tomorrow night, we are launching the book at The Book Lounge in Cape Town. Another book baby making its first steps in the world …
And like any book parent, I feel proud … and a little bit tired. 2023 so far has been my most productive publishing year ever, and it’s only the beginning of May. Lots more work is waiting to be done, but tonight, I am just going to celebrate and relax.
2023 at Karavan Press so far …
Thank you to Everyone I have the pleasure of working with to make these amazing books happen.
I will be chairing two sessions at the KBF this year. I had so much fun attending the book fair last year that I can’t wait to return and look forward to engaging with all these wonderful authors, talking about fictional revenge and the short story – two of my favourite themes.
12:30 – 13:30 Karina Szczurek (Karavan Press) lets Lester Walbrugh (Elton Baatjies) and Michiel Heyns (Each Mortal Thing) allow their protagonists to settle the score.
16:00 – 17:00 Joanne Hichens (Fluid: Freedom to Be), Zaheera Jina Asvat (The Tears of the Weaver: Short Stories), Terry-Ann Adams (White Chalk: Stories) and Chase Rhys (Misfit: Stories vannie anne kant) share with Karina Szczurek about less sometimes being more.
For more details about the book fair, click here: KBF 2023
Unless we are suffering through a natural disaster, war, famine or pandemic, grief in the everyday is usually deeply personal. In the last three years, however, the world has been in the throes of grief on a global scale. COVID-19 and the resulting worldwide lockdowns initiated a process of communal mourning that is long from over. Many of us have turned to art for understanding and solace during this time. Art can provide both, on its creative and receiving ends. And perhaps no other art form can capture this wonder as succinctly as poetry.
The AVBOB Poetry Project began in 2017, and since then, in the words of AVBOB’s CEO, Carl van der Riet, “has expanded its reach as an essential archive representing our shared experience”. Many thousands of poems have been received since the inception. A significant number of these have found their way into the AVBOB Poetry Library, which is available online, and into the five volumes of poetry – I wish I’d said … – published as part of the endeavour. The first time I read one of these anthologies, I was surprised how much it meant to me. And now, engaging with the latest, the fifth volume in the series, gave me the renewed feeling of belonging that I’d sensed with the previous reading …
We had a much better venue – the Aquatic Club at the Clanwilliam Dam Resort – with electricity (apart from loadshedding) / generator, toilets, running water and a stunning view. Two vets and two veterinary nurses joined forces with Jeanine, who is a qualified veterinary paramedic, in helping the animals of Clanwilliam and area in attaining a better quality of life wherever they came from and whatever the challenges their humans were facing in their everyday life. No one was turned away.
Whereas last time I mainly helped Jeanine collect the animals and bring them home after their operations/treatments, this time I only briefly accompanied her on one of her trips.
For the most part, I assisted the volunteers who were watching over the animals in recovery: this involves monitoring their breathing and general well-being, cleaning up when they cannot control their body functions after anesthetics, turning and massaging their unconscious bodies as they gradually wake up, and making sure that they are safely back in their cages before they become fully conscious of what’s happening (particularly crucial with feral animals who freak out the moment they are back among the living).
Around a hundred animals were treated during those two days. We lost one – I watched the attending vet try to resuscitate the cat for about twenty minutes, but nothing could be done. Her efforts were herculean. We all felt the loss. One other cat had an epileptic fit, but made it through. One dog and his human arrived from a nearby farm after the dog had an unlucky encounter with a porcupine. (For the moment, the area does not have a permanent vet, so the two were fortunate that the fight happened during the project, and they did not have to travel to Piketberg to find help.) Everyone was taken care of with love – no matter the vomit, ticks, fleas and all. Those in need were assisted with food and whatever else was available.
Natalie from The Hoghouse (where you can buy Jeanine’s handmade beauty products which she makes at Oudrif to raise funding and awareness for CLAWS) was also there with her bakkie, fortitude and compassion – I watched her catch a feral feline runaway with her bare hands and still cannot believe what I saw. She has been assisting CLAWS in all kinds of ways for many years. (She took the photo of me with the recovering animals.)
We spent the night at Oudrif, where after a full day of work with other animals, Jeanine still attended to her Furry Family and two rescue pigeons. Bill cooked a wonderful veg lasagna and even had a glass of bubbly ready for us. I walked to my cottage exhausted, but the Milky Way was smiling above me, the hot shower was blissful, and the few hours of sleep deeper than ever despite the five o’clock wake-up for the second day of work.
If you want to experience Oudrif, they have a fantastic special on at the moment:
They are a registered NPO. Everyone is struggling at the moment, and they are no exception. It will take months for the organisation to pay off their project debts, but they soldier on regardless.
At Oudrif, you can also buy Karavan Press books. All proceeds go directly to CLAWS.
These two will fly again. And the rescue kitten who travelled with me back to Cape Town yesterday has found a wonderful forever home.
Guess who has already volunteered to help with the next CLAWS project … :)
Please join Joanne, me and a few of the amazing authors we had the pleasure of working with on this Short.Sharp.Stories anthology for the launch of FLUID!
Karina Magdalena 