Jesyka Traynor (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the Department of English Language and Literature at Queen鈥檚 University in Kingston, Ontario. She holds a BA and MA in English Literature and her work examines contemporary Californian literature, with a focus on representations of the Californian landscape and mythology by Californian authors. Jesyka also does research on true crime. Her work on women in twenty-first century true crime has been published in Crime Fiction Studies. Jesyka is the co-creator and Co-Editor-in-Chief of . She is also an Assistant Editor with . Find her on and .
- Contemporary American Literature
- Californian Literature
- True Crime and Criminology
- Crime Fiction
- American Studies
- Ecocriticisim and Landscape Studies
- Contemporary Canadian Literature
- Canadian/American Relations in literature
Friars, Rachel M and Jesyka Traynor. 鈥溾楧ogged, Insightful, and Humane鈥: Writing Women鈥檚 Lives in Twenty-First-Century True Crime.鈥 Crime Fiction Studies, vol. 3, no.1, 2022, Edinburgh University Press.
Traynor, Jesyka. PopMeC Assocation for U.S. Popular Culture Studies, 2021.
Academic Book Reviews
Traynor, Jesyka. Climate Lyricism by Min Hyoung Song. European Journal of American Culture, vol 43, no.1, 2024.
Conference Presentations
2023: ACCUTE, York University, Toronto, Ontario
鈥淚ndifferent machinery teeth": Landscape and Destruction in Helena Mar铆a Viramontes' Their Dogs Came With Them
2023: ACCUTE, York University, Toronto, Ontario
Panel: CAAS-"Making Exceptions, Taking Refuge"
Paper: 鈥淓vents without memory. Bones without flesh": Canadian Exceptionalism and The Way the Crow Flies
2022: Framing Serial Killing: Changing Narratives, International Virtual Conference
Paper: "They walked, like living people": Demythologization and Boys Enter the House
2022: Joan Didion: Life and/with/through words, International Virtual Conference
Paper: 鈥淭he California of milk and honey": Legacy and Mythology Joan Didion鈥檚 Run River
2022: ACCUTE, Montreal, Quebec
Panel Organizer/Panel Chair: 鈥淎merican Literary Geographies鈥
2021-ACCUTE, Virtual Conference.
Paper: 鈥淭his is how you are a citizen鈥: Sounds and Silences in Claudia Rankine鈥檚 Citizen: An American Lyric
2020-ALA, San Diego, California.
Panel: 鈥淎lternative Realities in American Texts鈥
Paper: 鈥淭here鈥檚 more than one way to lose your life to a killer鈥: Tracking Reproduction and Adaption in Fincher鈥檚 Zodiac and Tarantino鈥檚 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (conference cancelled)
2020-CAAS, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
Paper: 鈥淭he past, if there is such a thing, is mostly empty space鈥: 9/11 and Disaster in Teju Cole鈥檚 Open City (conference cancelled)
2020-CAAS/CCLA, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
Panel: 鈥淟os Angeles Literature and Culture鈥
Paper: 鈥淎 place and a predicament鈥: True Crime Depictions of South Central Los Angeles (conference cancelled)
2019-ACCUTE, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia
Paper: 鈥淚 was trying not to be a lot of types of guys back then鈥: Hegemonic Masculinity and Selfhood in Lynn Coady鈥檚 The Antagonist
2019-The Age of Anxiety: Literary Studies in a Culture of Risk, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario (attended)
2018-(De)Composing Death, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Paper: 鈥淎nd I am not resigned鈥: Tracing Joan Didion鈥檚 Magical Thinking
My dissertation focuses on contemporary Californian authors. Specifically, my project examines representations of Californian landscape and mythology in works by John Steinbeck, Joan Didion, and Helena Mar铆a Viramontes
