Liffey Swim

JESSICA TRAYNOR was born in Dublin in 1984. She is poet, dramaturg and creative writing teacher. Her debut collection, Liffey Swim (Dedalus Press, 2014), was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award and was named one of the best poetry debuts of the past five years on Bustle.com. It has recently been published in Brazil. Her second collection, The Quick, was an Irish Times poetry choice of 2019. In 2019, she co-edited Correspondences: an anthology to call for an end to direct provision with actor Stephen Rea. The book was a best-seller, with all proceeds going to MASI (Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland). Recent commissions include Music for Galway/ Galway 2020, The Yeats Society Sligo, The Model, VISUAL Carlow, Dun-Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, The Arts Council, BBC Radio 4, The Arts Council, Irish National Opera, RTÉ’s Poetry Programme, Sunday Miscellany and The Salvage Press. Awards include the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary, Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year and the Listowel Poetry Prize. She was the recipient of a Dublin City Council Literature Bursary and in 2009, was chosen for the Poetry Ireland Introduction Series. In 2016, she was named one of Poetry Ireland’s ‘Rising Generation’ of poets. Residencies include the 2020 Writer in Residence in Carlow College and 2020 Poet in Residence at the Yeats Society Sligo. She is an inaugural Creative Fellow of UCD, where she completed her MA in Creative Writing in 2008.