Jessica Traynor, recipient of the 27th Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry, will read at 7 p.m. Monday, May 8, at the University of St. Thomas Anderson Student Center, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul. The free event, hosted by St. Thomas President Rob Vischer, is presented by the school’s Center for Irish Studies and College of Arts and Sciences.

The O’Shaughnessy Award, the only prize of its type in the world, is granted to a poet resident in Ireland who makes significant contributions to the cultural landscape. It was established in 1996 by the late philanthropist Larry O’Shaughnessy and carries a $5,000 award.

Traynor is a poet, an essayist and a librettist, currently Arts Council writer-in-residence at Galway University. Her debut collection “Liffey Swim,” was acclaimed as one of the best debuts of 2014. Her most recent collection, “Pit Lullabies,” was a Poetry Book Society recommendation and an Irish Times 2022 Poetry Book of the Year.

Among Traynor’s awards and honors are being named Hennessy New Writer of the Year and winning the Ireland chair of Poetry Bursary and the Listowel Poetry Prize. In 2016, she was named one of the Rising Generation of Poets by Poetry Ireland.

Registration for the May 8 program is encouraged at artsandsciences@stthomas.edu.