Yesterday, I got an email from Jane Henshall at the British Council, letting me know that Malika Ndlovu, author ofInvisble Earthquake has been chosen by the SA Focus Steering Committee to participate in the London Book Fair next year. This follows closely on the heels of hearing that Modjaji Books received one of the 10 places for smaller, independent publishers. All of this is enormously thrilling, and underlies my sense that it was right to start Modjaji Books; there is a place for a small press focusing on the writing of Southern African women.
Malika Ndlovu and her new book, Invisible Earthquake – a mother’s journal through stillbirth, got a lot of media coverage this past weekend.
First came the excerpt and short review in Parent 24.com, thanks to Adele Hamilton, and then came the Editor’s Choice pick in the Cape Town community newspaper The Tatler. Chantel Erfort’s carrot: “Invisible Earthquake handles the subject matter of still birth sensitively both in content and packaging, and I recommend this to anyone who is looking for healing or insight into the path that can lead there.”
On Friday Tanya Farber’s interview with Malika is a full half page of the Cape Argus, much of the piece is Farber quoting Malika and summing up by saying that the book is “courageous”.
And then on Saturday, Tyrone August also in a half page interview with Ndlovu in The Weekender talks about Invisible Earthquake and her play, Sister Breyani which is on at The Baxter now this May. Malika tells August that the book is a way of remembering her daughter, of rendering her visible and is a “tribute to my daughter, my only daughter… We were blessed to have her, even for that short time.”
Malika and I are delighted with the positive attention the book is getting.
Yesterday, I got an email from Jane Henshall at the British Council, letting me know that Malika Ndlovu, author ofInvisble Earthquake has been chosen by the SA Focus Steering Committee to participate in the London Book Fair next year. This follows closely on the heels of hearing that Modjaji Books received one of the 10 places for smaller, independent publishers. All of this is enormously thrilling, and underlies my sense that it was right to start Modjaji Books; there is a place for a small press focusing on the writing of Southern African women.
