Traynor is the daughter of an Irish-British mother and a Nigerian father. She was raised first in an children's home and then in two white foster families, where she was physically, emotionally and sexually abused.

In early adulthood she attempted suicide and had problems with both alcohol and drugs, but has overcome those; she does not happily discuss her childhood in detail. She initially became a nurse and then studied psychology at university. One day while working as an information manager at the University of Plymouth she saw an advertisement for the Saga Prize (for a first novel by an African-British or -Irish writer).

This spurred her into writing her first, autobiographical novel, Sister Josephine, which won the prize in 1996 without having been published or even edited. Her second novel, Divine, also autobiographical, was published in 1998.

She has traced her birth father and a half-brother on the Internet.

References

Pizzichine, Lilian. "A Life Less Ordinary, But No Sympathy, Thanks," Independent on Sunday [London], 30 August 1998, Real Life section, p. 3
Traynor, Joanna, Sister Josephine. (London: Bloomsbury, 1997)
Battersby, Eileen. "Unpublished Début Novel Wins Prize," Irish Times," 22 October 1996
Mättig, Susann. "Joanna Traynor (*1960)." [Includes portrait]. Available at: http://rcswww.urz.tu-dresden.de/~lehre2/classpages/class/traynor.htm

Indexes

African
Uk/great Britain
20th Century
21st Century
Literature
Addiction or Abuse (drugs, Alcohol or Gambling)
Multiple or Unspecified
Birth or Infancy
Unmarried Mother, Single Parent (Mother or Father) Unable to Cope
Institutional Care
Disrupted or Failed Placements
Adoptee/Fosteree Traced Family