Librettist
Jessica Traynor
Paper BoatBiography
Jessica Traynor is a poet, dramaturg and librettist. Recent work includes Heartwood, a suite of poems set to music by Tom Lane, commissioned by VISUAL Carlow for Culture Night 2020, and Paper Boat, a major new opera for Galway 2020 composed by Elaine Agnew, which was commissioned by Music for Galway, and will be co-produced with Irish National Opera. She is also working on a short opera, Shakespeare in Love, for Wexford Festival Opera 2021.
In 2019, so co-edited Correspondences: an anthology to call for an end to direct provision with actor Stephen Rea. The best-selling anthology paired writers and artists in direct provision with Irish writers, and raised funds for MASI (Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland).
Her debut poetry collection, Liffey Swim (Dedalus Press, 2014), was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award. Her second collection, The Quick, was a 2019 Irish Times poetry choice. She is Poet in Residence at the Yeats Society, Sligo, and a Creative Fellow of UCD. She was a judge for the 2019-20 Irish Times Theatre Awards.
September 2020