ORNITHOLOGY

59pp.,  paperback, Modjaji Books, Cape Town, 2025

ISBN: 9781991240460

Poems.

"In Ornithology, Jeannie Wallace McKeown takes the reader into the heart of loss and grief, exploring the minutiae of everyday life afterwards – arranging cremations and birthdays, packing up clothes and buying groceries. In the Covid-19 pandemic, her tears salt her early morning tea; her dogs, trapped inside with her during lockdown, take their walks in their sleep while she grieves. Her writing is clear-eyed and direct, with no resort to sentimentality or cliche. The message is unmistakable: death and loss changes everything, but we are dying every day. There is only the urgent now in which to seek meaning and joy, to establish connections, to feel present and alive on the earth beneath your feet." Kerry Hammerton, poet, and author of afterwards

Jeannie Wallace McKeown's first poetry collection, Fall Awake, was published in 2020. She won the University of Canberra Vice Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize for ‘Climate Emergency’ in 2023 and for ‘Global South’ in 2024. She lives in Makhanda.