Jessica Traynor Readings
'Fierce and profound, Pit Lullabies is one of the vital books of the new Irish poetry.' - Ciarán O’Rourke, New Hibernia Review
Jessica Traynor's third collection Pit Lullabies was published by Bloodaxe in March 2022. It was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Spring 2022 and was shortlisted for the inaugural Yeats Society Poetry Prize in 2023. It follows Liffey Swim (2014) and The Quick (2019) from Ireland’s Dedalus Press.
The intimate, visceral and often wickedly funny poems of Pit Lullabies 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.
Jessica Traynor is the recipient of the Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry 2023, which honours outstanding Irish poets based in Ireland. She received her award in the USA in May 2023. She is also the recipient of the Field Day Tundish Award 2024 for contribution to the arts in Ireland. Her fourth collection New Arcana will be published by Bloodaxe in September 2025.
Pit Lullabies was one of Sinéad Gleeson’s 'stellar Irish writing' picks in The Irish Times’ Best books of 2022 of 26 November 2022. Read the feature here.
The collection was also chosen by Irish Times poetry critics Martina Evans and Seán Hewitt for their best new poetry of 2022 feature in The Irish Times. Available by subscription here.
Further reviews, interviews and poem features for Pit Lullabies are on our news page here.
US POEM FILMS
Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation, film poems, online 27 February 2025 and 3 December 2022
The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation has made two films of poems from Irish poet Jessica Traynor’s third collection Pit Lullabies. Both films are directed by Matthew Thompson.
The poem film ‘Midwinter’ was posted on 27 February 2025, performed by Ayesha Ostler. The text of the poem accompanies the film on the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation website.
https://www.brinkerhoffpoetry.org/poems/midwinter
Ayesha Ostler reads 'Midwinter' from Jessica Traynor's third collection Pit Lullabies (Bloodaxe Books, 2022).
The first Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation film of Jessica Traynor reading her poem 'Onion Poem' from Pit Lullabies was premiered a the Irish Arts Centre in New York at the 13th Annual PoetryFest in December 2022. Jessica read in person at the festival alongside Ilya Kaminsky.
PAST EVENTS
Launch reading by Moniza Alvi, Amali Gunasekera and Jessica Traynor on Thursday 24th March 2022
Online launch event by Moniza Alvi, Amali Gunasekera and Jessica Traynor celebrating the publication of their new poetry collections.
The readings were followed by a discussion with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley. Now available on YouTube - see video below. Jessica reads last in each set.
Poetry Book Society Instagram Live event - Wednesday 26 January 2022
Jessica Traynor read from her third collection Pit Lullabies for PBS Instagram Live. She appeared alongside Emily Berry, and was in conversation with Anthony Anaxagorou. Pit Lullabies is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Spring 2022.
The event is available to watch on the PBS Instagram.
[24 March 2022]
