Cover reveal of Zero Summer

We’re excited to reveal the gorgeous cover of Zero Summer, the forthcoming poetry collection by Wits academic and poet Simon van Schalkwyk, due for publication in April 2026.

Zero Summer immerses the reader in a stark poetic landscape of alienation, extinction and the spectre of an ending era. Yet, despite these looming catastrophes, the collection is both daring and deeply human, offering a startling vision of contemporary life and its fragile, persistent beauty. A work of formidable scope and originality, Zero Summer stands as a vital contribution to poetry’s ongoing dialogue with the world.

Our gorgeous cover features Precarious Strangers I from the talented Elize Vossgätter’s Gutter Pop series, a body of work that engages themes of contamination, co-existence, and unstable futures through the use of beeswax and synthetic pigment. The work’s visceral textures and its tension between attraction and unease speak directly to Zero Summer’s preoccupations: the porous boundary between the human and non-human, the beauty and threat embedded in the present moment, and the precariousness of survival in a damaged world.
Together, text and image form a compelling visual and conceptual threshold for this vital new collection.