Category Archives: Events

Open Book Workshop Week: The Tension Between Memoir and Fiction & From Manuscript to Bookshelf

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Explore the delicate balance between memoir and fiction with me, Karina Szczurek, in a two-part workshop. Your work could be published! Space is limited, so book now:

Open Book Workshop Week – The Tension Between Memoir and Fiction: Part 1

Open Book Workshop Week – The Tension Between Memoir and Fiction: Part 2

And:

Join industry specialists to get a clear understanding of what the publishing journey looks like and where your book fits best. Mbali Sikakana, Stevlyn Vermeulen and Karina Szczurek take the audience through the roles they play in the journey following which questions from the audience will be welcomed.

There will be a brief break during this session. Book here:

Open Book Workshop Week: From Manuscript to Book Shelf – Publishing

Hope to see you there!

At the Cape Flats Book Festival 2025

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I absolutely love the Cape Flats Book Festival and look forward to attending every year. This year’s edition looks fantastic. If you are a book lover, this is the place to be on 1 and 2 February!

I have the enormous privilege of chairing a session with Thobeka Yose and Tracy Going, and being part of an event that pays tribute to Athol Williams.

Other Karavan Press authors will feature: CFBF 2025

All events are free, parking is available and, apart from all the amazing literary stuff, you will love the snacks being sold on the premises during the festival. I can’t wait and hope to see many readers and friends there! Don’t miss it :)

Interviewing authors

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I have the huge honour of interviewing the following authors at upcoming literary festivals.

First up: Prince Albert Leesfees is taking place between 30 August and 1 September, and I will be interviewing Andrew Brown about his The Bitterness of Olives on Saturday, 31 August, at 10:15 a.m. I am not only looking forward to this conversation, but to returning to Prince Albert and the local Leesfees. More great memories will be made for sure.

Tickets: Prince Albert Leesfees

And then it’s Open Book time! Taking place between 6 and 8 September, the Open Book Festival is a highlight of every literary calendar. Karavan Press authors will be busy at the festival this year, and I can’t wait to listen to them all. I will be interviewing an author that I assist in distributing in South Africa, an Island Prize runner-up in the first year of the prize’s existence, Hamza Koudri. He will be on a panel with Damilare Kuku and Zibu Sithole and I have the privilege of chairing the session about WRITING SISTERS on Friday, 6 September, at 12 p.m. I interviewed Zibu at the festival last year and absolutely loved reading I Do … Don’t I?, the sequel to The Thing With Zola. And I can’t wait to meet Hamza and Damilare and to talk to them about their fascinating novels in the context of this topic that is very close to my heart (I only have one sibling, a brother, but he is the best sibling in the world, and I can’t imagine my life without him).

Tickets: Open Book Festival

Hope to see you at one or both of these events!

Kingsmead Book Fair 2024

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I have the privilege of chairing two sessions at the Kingsmead Book Fair this year on Saturday, 25 May.

12:30 – 13:30, Mackenzie 1| The body keeps score: tales from under the skin
Karina Szczurek (Hair: Weaving & Unpicking Stories of Identity) asks Kim Ballantine (Hot Tea and Apricots: A Memoir of Loss and Hope) if it’s smart to trust your gut.

14:30 – 15:30, Music Centre | No place to call home
Karina Szczurek (editor of Fluid: The Reason To Be) talks to Kobby Ben Ben (No One Dies Yet), Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu (Lucky Girl) and Buntu Siwisa (Paperless) about how it feels to be foreign.

Full programme: KBF 2024

Tickets: Webticket