Joanna Traynor


Joanna Traynor is a British writer, who is the author of the novels Sister Josephine, Divine and Bitch Money, all published by Bloomsbury, and an educational television producer/writer.

Life and writing

Joanna Traynor was born in London but raised in foster care in Chester. She is of mixed race — her father was a son of Irish immigrants and her mother Nigerian.
Traynor's first novel, Sister Josephine, won the SAGA Prize in 1996. She described the novel as "a semi-autobiographical account of a foster child on a white northern working class council estate and her experience of hospital life as a nurse in Liverpool. I used my own childhood as a canvas and painted things on it." Her second novel, Divine, dealt with the life of a black woman surrounded by drug abuse, confrontation with the law, rejection and rape. Despite the harshness of the situations in which Traynor's characters find themselves, her ear for dialogue registers their humour as well as their resilience. In an interview, Traynor explained how she saw the incident of her characters' lives:
Traynor's third novel, Bitch Money, was a crime thriller. She is passionate about writing, communications, technology and relationship counselling.

Novels