Author Archives: Karina

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About Karina

Author living in Cape Town.

Goodbye, 2022!

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Imagine Little Prince’s ‘hat’ upside down. This is how I see 2022 in retrospect. A good beginning, a deep dive into awfulness, a few months of a terrible low, and a gradual return to stability. There were several significant highs, but they had to compete against a lot of darkness.

I want to focus on the highs (not included are the the wonderful things that happened at Karavan Press – the whole year was a highlight because we survived and have a future!).

January: Watched a beautiful wedding on Zoom. Climbed Table Mountain and had dinner at The Hoghouse for my 45th birthday. A fabulous, unforgettable bubbly weekend at Graham Beck followed.

February: A beautiful weekend of literature, wine and delicious food in Elgin, one of my happy places.

March: A magical trip to the Seychelles where I was reunited with my Mom and Krystian and went snorkeling for the first time; we celebrated all the birthdays we missed celebrating during lockdown and loved every second of being together. The return of the (mini) Open Book Festival.

April: Watched the magical Firefly at the Baxter. Visited Oudrif, one of my other happy places. Had a haircut to remove all the bad energy gathered in the tips of my hair.

May: Neighbour’s 70th birthday celebration. Franschhoek Literary Festival and Kingsmead Book Fair.

June: I don’t remember much.

July: Topolino became mine after I paid off the loan. Rosebank Writers met for the first time. The Kenyan writer Idza Luhumyo was awarded the 2022 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story ‘Five Years Next Sunday’, published in Disruption (2021) – a SSDA anthology I co-edited with Rachel Zadok and Jason Mykl Snyman.

August: A dear friend’s 40th birthday party. Another trip to our beloved Oudrif.

September: Return of the (maxi) Open Book Festival. A weekend in Saldanha with new, lovely friends. Blown Away by Books. Gothenburg Book Fair.

October: Visit with Mom and Krystian in Austria for three weeks (and finding great memories in the boxes of my old stuff stored in my Mom’s attic)! Cape Flat Book Festival.

November: Road trip and literary festival in Richmond. Spiritual walk with a new friend in Lundadno. Aunt Zosia’s first visit in Cape Town.

December: The Book Lounge’s 15th birthday party. Second Karavan Press Literary Festival. Beethoven 9th at City Hall. Relaxed Christmas. Meeting my step-great-granddaughter for the first time.

Throughout the year, with the help of my friend Joanne, I managed to continue working on the manuscript of No and Other Contradictions. The first draft is almost finished. And considering that we met only once a week for about forty times, about three hours of writing each time, I think that this is a gigantic achievement.

Greatest lesson of 2022: Setting healthy boundaries is life-saving/changing.

Best books of 2022 (apart from the ones I published at Karavan Press, of course) in no particular order:

  • The Dark Flood
  • Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention
  • Mothers, Fathers and Others: New Essays
  • Ougat: From a Hoe Into a Housewife and Then Some
  • Mad Bad Love
  • It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
  • Madwoman
  • The Men
  • Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic
  • The Memory of the Air
  • Chouette
  • Pip and Egg
  • The Invincible Miss Cust
  • Panya Routes: Independent Art Spaces in Africa
  • The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World
  • Can Themba: The Making and Breaking of the Intellectual Tsotsi
  • Desert Star

I am still reading a few that I wish I had finished this year, but …

Hello, 2023! :)

Christmas 2022

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At dinner last night, a friend and I reminisced about delighting as children in the simplest things just because they were special to us: for her it was sweets and for me it was oranges. She grew up in a time and place when sweets were not easily attainable, and even though my time and place were different, oranges were just as unattainable for me. I would sometimes get one orange as a gift for Christmas, and every time I peel one today, I still think of my childhood. In my friend’s family, they called these simple treasures ‘luxuries’. Many years later, they still use the word and it still holds its magic. When we parted, I wished my friend a luxurious festive season. And today, I wish it for all of us. May we delight in the simple things, and never take them for granted.

My Christmas Eve’s table is set – as is the tradition in our home at Christmas time, I set it for one extra person in case someone needs a place at our table – and my heart is filled with luxuries. I wish everyone health and love and luxuries this Christmas and in the New Year. Merry Christmas!

FLUID: FREEDOM TO BE – Free short story webinars in preparation for entering the Short.Sharp.Stories competition

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We are thrilled to invite you to join Short.Sharp.Stories and All About Writing for two free online short story webinars. They are designed to provide guidance and support to writers who wish to enter the Short.Sharp.Stories competition:

FLUID: FREEDOM TO BE

The sessions are aimed at encouraging new and emerging writers to enter FLUID, as well as to hone their craft.

​Register now for both sessions!​

Session 1: What is a story and how to write one

Thursday 20 October 2022
17:30 to 19:30 South Africa Time

Hosts Joanne Hichens and Karina Szczurek will focus on the aspects of short story writing, with a particular aim to encourage emerging writers to understand the elements necessary in the creation of a short story. This session will include a mini-workshop, to spark ideas for a story based on the theme FLUID: Freedom To Be. Have a notebook and pen handy.

Session 2: Short Story Q and A

Thursday 3 November 2022
17:30 to 19:30 South Africa Time

In this session we’ll answer questions and field problems. Participants will be encouraged to send in questions beforehand.

During this time we’ll also do a warm-up writing exercise, focus on showing not telling, the cornerstone of good fiction writing.

​Short.Sharp.Stories is a proven platform showcasing top and emerging South African writers. However, we welcome all writers over the age of 18, no matter your background or experience, to send in short stories. FLUID seeks to engage fictional expression around identity, culture and society.

Every published writer will receive an honorarium of R 2 000, with a Grand Winner to receive R 10 000. Additional awards will be given at the discretion of Short.Sharp.Stories.

​Register now!​

The sessions will be recorded for anyone unable to make it on the day.

The Competition

​Click here for further information and to download the entry form.​

About the facilitators

​Joanne Hichens, author and editor, lives in Cape Town. Her crime novels are Out to Score (co-written), Divine Justice, published in the United States, and Sweet Paradise. Her young adult novels, Stained and Riding the Wave, were both shortlisted for the Sanlam Literature Award. Her memoir, Death and the After Parties, explores the passing of Joanne’s mother, husband, father and mother-in-law within a short period of time, and examines all that happens after death: emotional frenzy, funerals, family strife – the fighting and loving.

​Karina Szczurek is an author and founder of Karavan Press. Her debut novel, Invisible Others (2014), was longlisted for the 2015 Sunday Times Barry Ronge Fiction Prize. Her memoir The Fifth Mrs Brink, about her experiences being married to prominent South African novelist Andre Brink, was published in 2017 and You Make Me Possible: The Love Letters of Karina M. Szczurek and André Brink was published in 2018.

​Karavan Press aims to publish books they are passionate about, of any genre and any length. They nurture authors and their creativity, establish strong bonds between their writers and readers, and offer a literary home for those who treasure words and stories. Excellence, integrity, and their love for the book as an object are the cornerstones of Karavan Press.

Blown Away by Books

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Dear Readers,

I will be chairing a session at Blown Away by Books, taking place at the Fish Hoek Library between 15 and 17 September. On Friday, I will be speaking with Sara-Jayne Makwala King, Erika Bornman and Cathy Park Kelly about their remarkable, brave memoirs.

Please see the full programme of the festival here: Blown Away by Books

Love,

Karina

Woman Zone interview with Louisa Treger

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I interviewed Louisa Treger about her life and books, including her latest, Madwoman (Bloomsbury, 2022) for Woman Zone. Always a great joy to talk to Louisa – an amazing woman writing about other amazing women!

You can listen to the podcast here:

Artscape Conversations – Woman Zone Stories

Book review: Madwoman by Louisa Treger

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“If Hell existed in the universe, it was right here,” Nellie Bly thinks to herself only a few days into her confinement on Blackwell’s Island. It is 1887, and the asylum, just off the coast of New York, is “a socially acceptable way of disposing with inconvenient women”. The difference between Nellie and the other women locked up in this hell on earth is that she is there of her own free will. Bly faked insanity to be admitted. She is one of the most dangerous of “inconvenient women” — one with a voice. Madwoman is her story.

Continue reading: Sunday Times

Madwoman ★★★★★
Louisa Treger
Bloomsbury, 2022

Open Book Festival 2022

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Vanya Gastrow, Pie-Pacifique Kabalira-Uwase and Fred Khumalo speak to Karina Szczurek about the ongoing vulnerability of foreign nationals in South Africa.

A topic close to my heart. I can’t wait to talk to these remarkable people/authors about their lives and work.

Book your ticket here: Webtickets