New Arcana

by Jessica Traynor

With a cover by renowned comic book artist Lisa Sterle, the poems in Jessica Traynor’s New Arcana explore grief, bad boyfriends and the power of female friendship through readings of the Tarot and Tim Burton movies. 

Moving from teenage friendship and destructive relationships towards a tangling with the realities of family life, domesticity, and desire, this highly inventive collection builds into a heartbroken letter to a dear friend (personified in the poems as ‘lydia deetz’) who died by suicide. Interwoven with numbered poems from a newly imagined Major Arcana, New Arcana celebrates both the holding on, and the letting go. 

Among other awards, Jessica Traynor has received Hennessy New Writer of the Year and the Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry 2023. New Arcana is her fourth collection, following Liffey Swim (2014) and The Quick (2019) from Dedalus and Pit Lullabies (2022) from Bloodaxe.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

Published November 18, 2025

Reviews

[Sadie Hartmann]

"Jessica Traynor's New Arcana explores grief, bad boyfriends and the power of female friendship through readings of the Tarot and Tim Burton movies. Moving from teenage friendship and destructive relationships towards a tangling with the realities of family life, domesticity and desire, this highly inventive collection builds into a heartbroken letter to a dear friend (personified in the poems as 'lydia deetz') who died by suicide. Interwoven with numbered poems from a newly imagined Major Arcana, New Arcana celebrates both the holding on, and the letting go."

Full review closer to release in November. I loved this. Maybe the first time I have read a poetry collection and felt a connection

[Clark Hays]

One of my new favorites

I was in Dublin when our walking tour went past the Gutter Bookshop. The cover of New Arcana, by Jessica Traynor, caught my eye. After telling my wife to slow the tour down, I darted in and picked up an impulse copy and it was a very good decision. This is one of my favorite collections of poetry I’ve read recently from a current poet. Traynor writes beautifully, lyrically, viscerally about love, loss, friendship, grief and more. The images she evokes and power of her lines had me hooked from the jump. This is one my favorites:

…the dirty sea,
that slouches at the end of my road
heaving like a drunk
trying to get out of bed.

Along with great writing, I love the reimagining of the tarot and the sly pop references to Batman, Beetlejuice, Roger Moore and more.

So glad I popped in and bought this book when I had the chance. Highly recommend.

[Martin Kollouch]

What a wonderful connection! It was my random pick in one bookstore in Dublin. I opened the collection on page 46, poem called The Scientist, and I was like, yep this might be a book for me. And I didn’t expect to be connected on this level! Is it Lydia and Beetlejuice? Oh of course it is! Because “never trust the living “ sort of thing. I felt like we didn’t not connect in every single poem but mostly we did and I am really grateful that I walked that rainy day into this bookstore and chose this collection.

[Mark Sexton]

Striking, vivid and clever poems.

But also, what an eye for a striking cover... Along with pit lullabies, the covers (as with the poems inside) are arresting.

[Ace]

A good day for reading today: An absolutely solid poetry collection, with grief like an anchor, pulling you downwards into the floor. 10/10, will cry and question my life choices again.

[Tyler Butts]

Perused every once in awhile and really liked it! Very evocative, visceral imagery in many of the poems; especially the back half!

[Helen]

a symphony on grief, womanhood, magic, and film

[J]

3.5 stars rounded up; review on the Storygraph.