<i>The Tree is Missing</i>, and ‘Literature and politics strolled hand in hand’: censorship, surveillance, and poetry in Northern Ireland and Romania in the 1980s

Across its three parts, The Tree is Missing moves through history and language, with the same cast of characters appearing in 1930s Polish theatres, contemporary suburban apartment blocks, quiet, forgotten piazzas, and lonely balconies.

Part three consists of a long poem detailing life in Tarnów, Poland, just before World War II. Interspersed with recipes, folk songs, and church registries, it acts as a partial cipher for parts one and two.<br><br>The critical component, “Literature and politics strolled hand in hand”: Censorship, Surveillance, and Poetry in Northern Ireland and Romania in the 1980s’, considers forms of censorship and surveillance in Northern Ireland and Romania in the 1980s and assesses the ways that poetry confronts, grapples with, and responds to these potentially limiting political contexts.