Catalyst Press is an independent press founded in 2017. We see books as a spark for change in the world and seek to publish books that reveal the world from different perspectives, tilting or reversing or tweaking our own understanding of what’s real, true, necessary, or beautiful.

Featured Titles:

The Lion’s Binding Oath and Other Stories
Ahmed Ismail Yusuf
$15.95
paperback, ebook
Genre: Fiction, short stories
ISBN: 9781946395078 (pbk), 9781946395085 (ebook)
Pub date: June 30, 201
5 x 8″

Ahmed Ismail Yusuf’s collection of short stories introduces readers to the people of Somalia and their struggles. Through stories that span the years before and during Somalia’s civil war, Yusuf weaves together Somalia’s political, social, and religious conflicts with portrayals of the country’s love of poetry, music, and soccer. A powerful examination of love and resilience in a country torn apart by war and written with deep compassion for the lives of its characters.

“Ahmed Ismail Yusuf’s The Lion’s Binding Oath and Other Stories offers tender memories of his pre-war homeland of Somalia. Even as the drums of war sound to foreground the onset of strife, so do rhythms of the everyday, all captured in hypnotic prose. A timely intervention that affirms all is not lost—in Yusuf’s imagined homeland—and the nation currently under reconstruction.” – Peter Kimani, author of Dance of the Jakaranda

After fleeing Somalia, Ahmed Ismail Yusuf lived in several states but has lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota since 1997. He did not speak English when he arrived, he was a high-school dropout, and he was not sure what his actual age was. Today he has two college degrees and is the author of Somalis in Minnesota, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.

Love Interrupted
Reneilwe Malatji
$15.95
paperback, ebook
Genre: Fiction, short stories
ISBN: 9781946395030 (pbk), 9781946395092 (ebook)
Pub date: August 8, 2018
5 x 8″

A baby born the wrong color; a college graduate whose African family cannot be seated at a restaurant full of Whites; a man who smashes his Audi through his garage door, killing all his valuable assets in the process.  The stories in Reneilwe Malatji’s Love, Interrupted peel back the gloss from atop South Africa’s “Black Diamonds” to reveal the sedimentary layers of truth in the lives of these model middle-class families: each story inventively unfurls a different desire, longing, or frustration.  In the paired stories “A Young Girl’s Dream” and “It’s My Turn to Eat,” we find Lebo, a former domestic whose aspirations have led her to own a construction company with a contract from the Department of Transport.  We find, when Lebo is caught in the crosshairs at her own elaborate party, that “the scars of her difficult childhood remain, denying her complete happiness and peace.”  The stories of Love, Interrupted are just like this, haunting you with their statements about the world of South Africa’s middle class long after you’ve finished reading. — Jacinda Townsend, author Saint Monkey.

Reneilwe Malatji grew up in South Africa during the era of apartheid. Her father was an academic and her mother was a school teacher. Malatji recently completed a post-graduate diploma in Journalism and an MA in Creative Writing at Rhodes University. She works as a lecturer at the University of Limpopo in South Africa and has an adult son. Love Interrupted is her first book.

Backlist:

Dark Traces
Martin Steyn
Translated from Afrikaans by Martin Steyn
$15.95
paperback, e-book
Genre: international crime fiction
ISBN: 9781946395016 (PBK), 9781946395054(e-book)
Pub date: October 26, 2017
5 x 8″

Exploring the twin sides of murder–killing for love, killing for pleasure. “A dark, intriguing, and satisfying tale with strong characters.” Kirkus, starred review

Sacrificed
Chanette Paul
Translated from Afrikaans by Elsa Silke
$16.95
paperback, e-book
Genre: international thriller
ISBN: 9781946395009 (pbk), 9781946395023 (e-book
Pub date: October 26, 2017
5 x 8″

From the Congo’s sparkling diamond mines to Belgium’s finest art galleries, from Africa’s civil unrest to its deeply spiritual roots, Sacrificed seamlessly crosses borders and decades with a fiercely captivating story.

We Kiss Them With Rain
Futhi Ntshingila
$14.95
paperback, ebook
ISBN: 9781946395047 (pbk), 9781946395061 (ebook)
Pub date: March 18, 201
5 x 8″

“Ntshingila’s lyrically wrought North American debut is a slim yet satisfying novel sure to trigger a wide range of emotions.” Kirkus (Starred review)

Shaka Rising: A Legend of the Warrior Prince
Luke Molver
$24.00 (hbk), $16.99 (pbk), 14.99 (ebook)
hardback, paperback, ebook
ISBN: 9781946498991 I (hardback), 9781946498984 (pbk), 9781946498977 (ebook)
Pub date: January 9, 2018
9 x 6.5″

A charismatic young warrior prince emerges from exile to usurp the old order and forge a new, mighty Zulu kingdom. First of a graphic novel series on African History from our Story Press Africa imprint, a collaboration with Jive Media Africa.