Mawenzi House Publishers Ltd.

12/14/2024

Cotton Blues was the last book we published this year. We paired Cotton Blues with some of our translated titles, since we published three French to English translations this year, and completed the Prison of Dreams Quintet.

Translated titles we recommend:

📖Manam by Rima Elkouri, translated by Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott
📖Mina Among the Shadows by Edem Awumey, translated by Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott.
📖Blueberries and Apricots by Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, translated by Howard Scott
📖Toronto, I Love You by Didier Leclair, translated by Elaine Kennedy
📖Salt in My Life by Lien Chao

All the books mentioned are on sale via our website: https://bit.ly/2VTsyyo

12/13/2024

Farida by Monia Mazigh was the second French-to-English translation we published this year.
Farida is a beautiful, evocative novel of modern Tunisia told through the lives of its women.

We recommend books on female empowerment and included Mazigh's non-fiction title, which we published in June 2023!

Books we recommend:
📖The Red One by Safia Fazlul
📖Her Mother's Ashes 3, edited by Nurjehan Aziz
📖Electric Fences and Other Stories by Gugu Hlongwane
📖The Muslimah Who Fell to Earth: Personal Stories by Canadian Muslim Women edited by Saima S Hussain
📖Gendered Islamophobia: My Journey with a Scar(f) by Monia Mazigh

All the books mentioned are on sale via our website: https://bit.ly/2VTsyyo.

12/12/2024

I Left You Behind by Nazneen Sheikh is the second short story collection we published this year.

These are stories of dislocation, relocation, and longing, evoking the physical and mental isolation made so tangible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Books about displacement/between places we recommend:
📖Her Mother's Ashes 3 edited by Nurjehan Aziz
📖Echoes from the Other Land by Ava Homa
📖Looking Back, Moving Forward edited by Julie C Robinson
📖Adrift by Loren Edizel
📖Flesh, Tongue by Yaya Yao

All the books mentioned are on sale via our website: https://bit.ly/2VTsyyo.

Check back tomorrow for more recommendations.

12/11/2024

The Bare Bones of Our Alphabet will make you think and exercise those poetry-reading muscles. We paired this book with other books focusing on language.

Books we recommend:
📖The Perfect Unravelling of the Spirit by Irene Marques
📖Caribbean Blues & Love’s Genealogy by Dannabang Kuwabong
📖Nuff Said by Michelle Muir
📖Bodymap by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

All the books mentioned are on sale via our website: https://bit.ly/2VTsyyo.

Check back tomorrow for more recommendations.

12/10/2024

Following Shimun was our first (and only) memoir we published this year, and was also our first translated title.
Following Shimun paints a stirring picture of the Innu people, for whom the call of the land exerts a magnetic pull and the spirit of hospitality still dictates how they treat unexpected guests.

Books we recommend:
📖: My Work With Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Canada by Chandrakant P Shah
📖SH:LAM (The Doctor) by Joseph A Dandurand
📖Do Not Enter My Soul in Your Shoes by Natasha Kanapé Fontaine
📖Message Sticks (Tshissinuatsh*takana) Joséphine Bacon

All the books mentioned are on sale via our website: https://bit.ly/2VTsyyo

Check back tomorrow for more recommendations.

12/09/2024

A little bit out of the norm from what we publish, The Blessed Curse by Sarmad Sehbai is a savage satire, blending the real and unreal. The novel’s style carries the tradition of Punjabi humour, which is often dark, irreverent, and brutally frank.

Novels we recommend:
📖An Island Is a World by Sam Selvon
📖Isolated Incident by Mariam Pirbhai
📖Keepers of the Faith by Shaukat Ajmeri
📖Nehanda by Yvonne Vera
📖The Thin Line by Perparim Kapllani

All the books mentioned are on sale via our website: https://bit.ly/2VTsyyo

Check back tomorrow for more recommendations.

12/08/2024

We published the final book in the Prison of Dreams Quintet this year! With this gripping tale coming to a close, we've got some book recommendations for gripping tales.

Books we recommend:
📖The Writing Circle by Rozena Maart
📖Fire Walkers by Bethlehem Terrefe Gebreyohannes
📖 Such a Lonely, Lovely Road by Kagiso Lesego Molope
📖Miah by Julia Lin

All the books mentioned are on sale via our website: https://bit.ly/2VTsyyo

Check back tomorrow for more recommendations.

12/07/2024

The Prison of Dreams quintet was completed this year! We published the fourth book which was translated into English. This quintet develops the context of Sri Lanka’s tragic civil war, we wanted to highlight other Tamil-authored books.

Tamil-authored books we recommend:
📖The Strike by Anand Mahadevan
📖You Cannot Turn Away by R Cheran
📖World Without Walls: Being Human, Being Tamiledited by R Cheran, Dalbir Singh, Chelva Kanaganayakam, Sudharshan Durayappah
📖Then There Were No Witnesses by Ahilan

All the books mentioned are on sale via our website: https://bit.ly/2VTsyyo

Tomorrow we conclude the Prison of Dreams quintet.

12/06/2024

The second poetry title we published is Daniel Maluka's debut collection, Unwashed. Since Daniel lives in Toronto, we thought we would pair his fabulous collection with some of our local Toronto authors/poets!

Daniel is also a visual artist and helped us create his book cover!

Toronto/local authors we recommend:
📖Reimagining Chinatown: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction edited by Linza Zhang
📖Bittersweet by Natasha Natasha Ramoutar
📖Toronto, I Love You by Didier Leclair, translated from French by Elaine Kennedy
📖Rouge by Adrian De Leon
📖The Youth of God by Hassan Ghedi Santur

All the books mentioned are on sale via our website!

Check back tomorrow for more recommendations.

12/05/2024

We published a debut poetry collection from Linzey Corridon that we rave about even months
later. We've paired Linzey's book with some of our other Caribbean poets (Linzey was born and raised in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and now resides in Canada).

Caribbean Poets we recommend:
📖Sargasso Sea Scrolls by Dannabang Kuwabong
📖de Book of Joseph by Pamela Mordecai
📖The Voyage by H Nigel Thomas
📖Mattress Makers by Sasenarine Persaud
📖Redemption Rain by Jennifer Rahim

All the books mentioned are on sale via our website!

If you like poetry and local authors you're going to like tomorrow's recommendations!

12/04/2024

Taking a look back at the third title we published, Killing Shakespeare by Koom Kankesan, is a fantasy/sci-fi young adult novel. This is a fan-favourite in our office, and we will talk to anyone and everyone about this novel.

Other Young Adult books we recommend:
📖My Totem Came Calling by Blessing Musariri & Thorsten Nesch
📖This Book Betrays My Brother by Kagiso Lesego Molope
📖Ghost Boys by Shenaaz Nanji
📖Any Girl by Caroline van Rooyen

All the books mentioned are on sale via our website!

Find out what books we paired with one of our poetry collections from a debut poet tomorrow!

12/03/2024

Open Season: Stories by Shaukat Ajmeri was our second published title, and our first short story collection of 2024!

Swipe to see some of the other short story collections we published over the year.

📖Things She Could Never Have by Tehmina Khan
📖Spiritual Pursuits and Other Stories by Lien Chao
📖Fauji Banta Singh and Other Stories by Sadhu Binning
📖TMaame (Mother) by Elizabeth Allua Vaah

All the books mentioned are on sale via our website! We've got more great book recommendations coming your way tomorrow. 👀

12/02/2024

Happy first day of 13 Days of Book Recommendations from Mawenzi House!

The first book we published was back in January this year. It's the third book in the Prison of Dreams Quintet, and we paired books about displacement/relocation with this title.

Books we recommend:
📖Drums of My Flesh by Cyril Dabydeen
📖Reminders on the Path by Sheinz Janmohamed
📖Hands for Language by Uma Menon
📖The Chinese Knot by Lien Chao
📖Nila the Bleeding Garden by Laila Re

All the books mentioned are on sale via our website! We've got some great book recommendations coming your way tomorrow. 👀

12/01/2024

To celebrate the 13 titles that we published this year, we're doing 13 Days of Book Recommendations!

Each day from December 2 to December 14, we've paired book recommendations with one of the titles we released this year. To make this even better, all our featured titles are on sale on our website! (pre-orders are excluded from this sale).

Check back on Monday to see what books we recommend with the first title we published in 2024!

11/27/2024

Can you believe it? We've published 13 fantastic books this year! Which one is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!

You can now take 30% off these print titles (and 10% off ebooks) when you shop from our website: https://bit.ly/2VTsyyo

11/26/2024

Get started on your holiday shopping for your friends (or yourself) with 30% off our print titles, and 10% off our ebooks!

Pre-orders are excluded from this sale.

Visit our website to place your order: https://bit.ly/2VTsyyo

11/15/2024

11/13/2024

We'll be at the Meet the Presses Indie Lit Market this Sunday from 12 - 4:30 pm. This is a FREE event.

Shaukat Ajmeri will be signing copies of OPEN SEASON: STORIES and KEEPERS OF THE FAITH at our table from 1 - 2.
Daniel Maluka will be signing copies of UNWASHED from 2 - 3 pm.

Come say hi and find your newest read... Or grab some books for your never-ending TBR pile, we don't judge.