Stephen Symons holds an MA in Creative Writing (University of Cape Town) and is currently completing a PhD in Historical Studies at the University of Pretoria. His poetry and short fiction have been published in journals, magazines and various anthologies, locally and internationally. His first collection of poetry, Questions for the Sea received an honourable mention for the 2017 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry, and was also shortlisted for the 2018 Ingrid Jonker Prize. His unpublished collection Spioenkop was a semi-finalist for the Hudson Prize for Poetry (USA) in 2015. Landscapes of Light and Loss is his second collection of poetry.