ABOUT THE COLLECTION

Much of the backbone of the manuscript was written during the pandemic, and then gradually refined over the following years. Many of the ideas had been stirring in me for some years before, based on experiences from having lived in South America, and then from my work in South Africa’s education NGO world, where one project in particular allowed to travel extensively around the country and all nine of its provinces. More than embodying the themes of the collection, these places lead me through those themes and ideas themselves.

The poems seek to explore language and sound (the ‘signs’), how they relate to meaning (and to poetry), and how they ‘return’ again and again, as though locked in certain patterns. This encompasses the possibilities and limits of expression, and the ensuing fear of absence (or being absent) that this produces: of being present but psychologically, spiritually, emotionally absent at the same time, in a type of spiritual-linguistic ‘limbo.’ Consequently, how all of the aforementioned generates (or erodes) belonging, which could be to a particular place, or places, or just more generally. And the difficult but necessary, liberating embrace of uncertainty. 

In terms of the final result, I have been privileged to have had Michael King (who has been a mentor to me) and John Withers revise the manuscript and guide me through my doubts, and also to have had Simon van Schalkwyk revise an earlier version. Working with Allan Kolski Horwitz has reminded me of the energy of the lines of poetry, the kind of energy that had attracted me to poetry in the first place.  

ABOUT THE POET

Sean MacGinty has worked in the education NGO sector in South Africa since 2014, and co-authored an academic paper on educational arts which has been published as a chapter in the third edition of Transforming Africa: Fostering Innovation in Africa’s Socioeconomic Landscape (Emerald Publishing). He has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town, and has had poetry published in New Contrast: The South African Literary Journal, New Coin, LitNet, Daily Maverick, Hotazel Review as well as the Latin American Literary Review. In 2023, one of his poems was shortlisted for South Africa’s National Poetry Prize. He has had poetry written in Spanish anthologised in Antología Malvinas, Identidad y Cultura, at the Museo Malvinas e Islas del Atlántico Sur in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Returning Signs is his debut poetry collection.