Shannon Kuta Kelly on Liminal Spaces, Folklore, and Her Debut Collection The Tree is Missing
Episode description
In this episode of Words That Burn, I sit down with poet Shannon Kuta Kelly to explore the beautifully haunting landscapes of her debut poetry collection, The Tree is Missing (coming this April from Faber and Faber).
Shannon’s work has been featured in the New England Review, Poetry Ireland Review, and The Irish Times. As a PhD graduate from the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University Belfast and a 2025 Ciaran Carson Fellow, she brings a profound depth of knowledge and intuition to her craft. We discuss the tension between the past and present, the eerie realities of urbanisation, and how transient living shapes our identities.
This episode explores:
- The Meaning of "The Tree is Missing": Unpacking the symbolic, ecological, and geographical resonances behind the collection's title.
- Liminality and Urban Sprawl: How manmade borders, transient city living, and the meeting point between nature and concrete influence her writing.
- History’s Phantom Limbs: Grounding the tragic, echoing histories of places like Tarnów, Poland, through human-centric storytelling and everyday images.
- Folklore and Dream Logic: Why poetry and myth are a "match made in heaven," and how Shannon taps into our shared subconscious and collective symbols.
- An Exclusive Reading: Shannon treats us to a reading of her poignant poem, Gost, and discusses the linguistic overlap between "ghosts" and "guests."
Whether you are a writer looking for advice on peeling back the layers of your own poetry or a reader fascinated by the intersection of myth and reality, Shannon’s insights are not to be missed.
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Time Stamps:
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
01:05 Why The Tree Is Missing
02:25 Borders Urban Sprawl Erasure
03:33 Liminal Life and POV Shifts
04:49 Observing Strangers and Details
06:00 From Reality to Spare Images
08:43 Tarnov and Haunted History
12:44 Storytelling Women and Three Sisters
15:20 Poetic Truth and Let It Be August
16:58 Endings Claustrophobia and Book Shape
19:58 Editing Influences and Breathing Space
22:28 Decay in Pastoral Scenes
24:56 Folklore and Poetic Logic
26:48 Two Brothers Divided
29:31 Nostalgia and Lost Homes
32:11 Dream Time Symbols
34:45 How Poems Are Collected
36:07 Gost Guests and Ghosts
39:50 Refrain and Repetition
42:05 Advice for other poets
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