‘Our box met with a bit of a red wine incident …’ Joanne wrote close to midnight yesterday and sent the picture above. I don’t know details of the ‘incident’ – yet! – but I just love it that this was my confirmation of our incredible win last night at the HSS Awards! I was interviewing Tan Twan Eng (what a pleasure that had been!) earlier in the day and had a prior evening commitment, so I could not fly up for the awards ceremony, but Joanne was there to represent us. It was ‘like the Oscars’, according to her, and WE WON!
It is such a joy that we were recognised with the HSS Award for Best Fiction Edited Volume for our Short.Sharp.Stories anthology, FLUID: The Freedom to Be. I have the photograph, but it is still difficult to grasp that this wonderful thing happened to us. And it happened at the same time when Dawn Garisch won the HSS Award for Best Fiction Short Stories for her collection, What Remains. And Frankie Murrey won the HSS Award for Best Emerging Author in the Fiction Category for her debut, Everyone Dies. The stories we tell and nourish and publish are spreading their wings and doing remarkable things!
In keeping with the Noordhoek Art Point Gallery‘s theme for November — the Flow of Water — this month’s Salon Hecate will feature the recently published Short.Sharp.Story anthology, Fluid: The Freedom To Be.
For Fluid, South African writers were given this intriguing prompt: “In a FLUID state, nothing is fixed, matter can flow easily — between borders and boundaries, between cultures, between genders — everything is possible, porous, playful. In this world, increasingly conservative and restricted, we embrace the fluid nature of humanity. We grow, we change course, we discover more about who we are.” The best twenty stories in response were published in this collection. In reviewing it, author Jen Thorpe said: “I am always searching for writing that challenges me to try new techniques, forms and genres, and that takes on subjects I hadn’t considered. This collection does just that.”
Together with three Fluid contributors, I was asked to speak about the collection at the next Salon Hecate event. Contributors will read brief extracts from their stories. One of them, local artist Alex Latimer, will talk about the “fluidity” and overlap of being both a visual artist and illustrator, and an author. Vuyokazi Ngemntu will speak about the shades (literally) of identity for another perspective on what it means to be fluid. And Anna Hug will read from her shocking and entertaining story featuring perfume — also a fluid. Additionally, author Athambile Masola will read her poetry in both English and isiXhosa, to show us another form of fluidity — translation.
About the authors
Karina Szczurek
Karina Szczurek is an author, memoirist, reviewer and the driving force behind Karavan Press. She lives in Rosebank, Cape Town, and has won too many awards for her writing to list here. She looks very fetching in a witch’s hat.
Alex Latimer
Alex Latimer is an artist and illustrator who lives in Fish Hoek. His picture books are published around the world, and his stories have won or been shortlisted for the Short Story Day Africa prize and the Commonwealth prize. He has published a novel and two apocalyptic sagas, South and North, as one half of Frank Owen (the other half being Diane Awerbuck, whose work also appears in Fluid).
Vuyokazi Ngemntu
Vuyokazi Ngemntu is a writer-performer who lives in Nyanga. She uses a wide range of performances of words (poetry, ritual, song and more) to look at trauma and inequality, and to inspire healing. Her short stories have won or been shortlisted for a number of prizes in Africa.
Athambile Masola
Athambile Masola is an academic, archival expert and poet who lives in Muizenberg. She lectures in Historical Studies at UCT, and her PhD and primary research focuses on black women’s life writing. Her debut poetry collection, Ilifa, was published in 2021.
Anna Hug
Anna Hug, an author and editor who lives in Kommetjie, has had her stories published in South African literary journals, and has been longlisted for the Myslexia fiction prize.
Salon details
Date and time: TUESDAY (note: not our usual Monday!) 14 November, 5.30 for 6pm, until 7pm. Entrance is free, and all are welcome.
Please join us for small snacks and a glass of wine or juice.
Got a question about this event or interested in a particular piece you’ve seen? Get in touch with the Gallery at info@noordhoekartpoint.co.za or call 0835642493.
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.
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!
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:
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.
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.
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.
Karina Magdalena 