Description
These intimate, visceral and often wickedly funny poems journey through the darker days of new parenthood, teasing out the anxieties which plague us when night falls. Violence against women, the destruction of our environment, the poisons and pitfalls of 21st-century living are explored here in poems by turns lyrical and earthy, yearning and angry. They mine gold from the darkness and seek luminescence in the deepest oceans. Pit Lullabies is Jessica Traynor's third collection, following Liffey Swim (2014) and The Quick (2019) from Ireland's Dedalus Press. Poetry Book Society Recommendation.
About the Author
Jessica Traynor was born in Dublin in 1984 and is a poet, essayist and librettist. Her debut collection, Liffey Swim (Dedalus Press, 2014), was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award and in 2016 was named one of the best poetry debuts of the past five years on Bustle.com. Her second collection, The Quick, was a 2019 Irish Times poetry choice. A Place of Pointed Stones, a pamphlet commissioned by Offaly County Council, was published by The Salvage Press in 2021. Her third collection, Pit Lullabies, was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2022. It is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She has received commissions for poems from BBC Radio 4, The Arts Council of Ireland, The Model Gallery Sligo, The Salvage Press, VISUAL Carlow, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and The Poetry Programme (RTE), and awards including the Hennessy New Writer of the Year, the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary, and the Listowel Poetry Prize. In 2016, she was named one of the 'Rising Generation' of poets by Poetry Ireland. She reviews poetry for RTE's Arena, and for Poetry Ireland Review, and has held residencies including the Yeats Society, Sligo, and Carlow College. She is an inaugural Creative Fellow of UCD, where she completed her MA in Creative Writing in 2008, and is Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Writer in Residence for 2021-22. She is poetry editor at Banshee.
Reviews
Visionary, luminous and haunted, Jessica Traynor's poems are home to a host of compelling characters: witches, changelings, the spirit of Hildegard of Bingen. In The Quick, even the grotesque is rendered with subtle delicacy - a woman whose "lungs fold like an origami bird". These poems will give you goose-bumps. -- Helen Mort * on The Quick *
Written with a lightness of touch, these poems are capable of dealing with the big themes - especially those of birth, death or illness...this poet [is] capable of creating canonical work which draws on a contemporary re-thinking of poetic traditions while finding a voice that is wholly her own. -- Siobhan Campbell * Poetry Ireland Review, on The Quick *
Traynor is a master at delineating these almost imperceptible but vital changes...Traynor's fine delicate lyricism belies a social consciousness that subtly bleeds through several poems. -- Martina Evans * The Irish Times, on The Quick *
Book Information
ISBN 9781780376066
Author Jessica Traynor
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Publisher Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 8mm
About the Author
Jessica Traynor was born in Dublin in 1984 and is a poet, essayist and librettist. Her debut collection, Liffey Swim (Dedalus Press, 2014), was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award and in 2016 was named one of the best poetry debuts of the past five years on Bustle.com. Her second collection, The Quick, was a 2019 Irish Times poetry choice. A Place of Pointed Stones, a pamphlet commissioned by Offaly County Council, was published by The Salvage Press in 2021. Her third collection, Pit Lullabies, was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2022. It is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She has received commissions for poems from BBC Radio 4, The Arts Council of Ireland, The Model Gallery Sligo, The Salvage Press, VISUAL Carlow, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and The Poetry Programme (RTE), and awards including the Hennessy New Writer of the Year, the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary, and the Listowel Poetry Prize. In 2016, she was named one of the 'Rising Generation' of poets by Poetry Ireland. She reviews poetry for RTE's Arena, and for Poetry Ireland Review, and has held residencies including the Yeats Society, Sligo, and Carlow College. She is an inaugural Creative Fellow of UCD, where she completed her MA in Creative Writing in 2008, and is Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Writer in Residence for 2021-22. She is poetry editor at Banshee.
Reviews
Visionary, luminous and haunted, Jessica Traynor's poems are home to a host of compelling characters: witches, changelings, the spirit of Hildegard of Bingen. In The Quick, even the grotesque is rendered with subtle delicacy - a woman whose "lungs fold like an origami bird". These poems will give you goose-bumps. -- Helen Mort * on The Quick *
Written with a lightness of touch, these poems are capable of dealing with the big themes - especially those of birth, death or illness...this poet [is] capable of creating canonical work which draws on a contemporary re-thinking of poetic traditions while finding a voice that is wholly her own. -- Siobhan Campbell * Poetry Ireland Review, on The Quick *
Traynor is a master at delineating these almost imperceptible but vital changes...Traynor's fine delicate lyricism belies a social consciousness that subtly bleeds through several poems. -- Martina Evans * The Irish Times, on The Quick *
Book Information
ISBN 9781780376066
Author Jessica Traynor
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Publisher Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 8mm
